Davin blog

N.Korea's Kim Jong-Il 'dreamed of stoning'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il told a visiting businessman he had nightmares of being stoned by angry members of the public in his isolated nation, a Seoul lawmaker said in an interview.

Kim told the late founder of the Hyundai group, Chung Ju-Yung, of having a dream that he was being stoned "first by Americans, second by South Koreans and finally by North Koreans," said Chung's son, Grand National Party lawmaker Chung Mong-Joon.

"I think Kim wanted to express that he was well aware of the desperate reality of North Korea," the younger Chung said in the interview with MBC TV on Sunday. He said he had heard the story from his father, who died in 2001.

The late South Korean business tycoon, who spearheaded major inter-Korea economic cooperation projects, visited Pyongyang several times from 1998 to 2000 to meet Kim.

In one of the meetings, Kim told Chung he was "well aware" that most people in the communist state disliked him, despite pervasive propaganda campaigns that idolise the ruling Kim family, according to Chung's son.

The Kim dynasty has ruled the North with an iron fist since its founding in 1948, sending political dissidents to prison camps where they reportedly face torture and forced labour that can last a lifetime.