North Korea Undercover by John Sweeney Page B

not your place to complain.”’
    Ceausescu, who everyone says was a kinder man than Elena when it came to handling servants, intervened and Izidor finally got some rest. At the end of the North Korean trip, Izidor was booked on a flight back to Bucharest, but Ceausescu interrupted, saying that that was a waste of money, and told Izidor to come on the Romanian presidential jet with the rest of party to Hanoi. On leaving Hanoi, it turned out the runway was too short, the jet too heavy, so they dumped Izidor on the tarmac. He had three dollars on him. One week later, he managed to hitch a flight to Pakistan in a cargo plane. On that flight, no food and drink, only cold. At Karachi, he spent the last of his money on two bottles of 7-Up,which was his only food and drink for the seventeen-hour flight back to eastern Europe. The translator shook his head: ‘That’s why I shall never forget that visit.’
    He recalled Pyongyang in 1954, immediately after the Korean war: ‘It really was as it says in the Bible, “Not one stone upon another.” No buildings, no electricity, no running water, no heating. Our embassy was a small villa, a little away from the city. It had no glass windows, only scraps of cardboard. Later, they built an apartment building for us. There was no heating. In winter, it was extremely cold. Eventually, they brought me a very large duvet and I sewed up the bottom of it, making a sleeping bag.’
    How did he find Kim Il Sung? ‘Like a god.’
    The Great Leader was charming to Izidor, very friendly, had a ready laugh: ‘He wanted everybody to know that he was looking after the ordinary people. That was true but there was some acting, too.’ The Romanian seemed to have the mind-set of many North Koreans of the older generation, happy to give Kim the First the benefit of the doubt, but more critical of Kims Two and Three.
    Izidor recalled translating for Ceausescu in Korea, and there was no chair, so he was obliged to stand. ‘Kim noticed, and said, “Why are you standing? Grab yourself a chair.’” On Kim Il Sung’s last trip to Europe in 1985, Izidor accompanied him on the train journey from Bucharest – remember, he hated flying – to the eastern border. As dawn came up, Kim sent word to Izidor to join him for breakfast, a sumptuous affair. Nothing much was said during the meal, butIzidor remembered the generosity of the god-king. Izidor recounted one of the fables told in North Korea, how Kim was being driven through the countryside when he passed a woman whose tractor had broken down. Kim ordered his chauffeur to stop and then tow the broken tractor to the nearesttown. ‘The common people believe this story. My commentary: it’s not impossible that this story is true’
    What was the difference between Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il? ‘As far as foreign relations were concerned, Kim Il Sung was an excellent player; he juggled between China and Russia. Kim Jong Il had nothing of his father’s ability to play foreign interests against each other. That is why Kim Jong Il only ever visited China and Russia, no other countries. Kim Il Sung tried to save and maintain the Communist system, using political means on an international scale. Kim Jong Il did not use politics, but did his best to provide security for the country by force. The consequence was long-range rockets and three nuclear tests’
    Izidor did four spells in the Hermit Kingdom: from 1954 to 1960, from 1962 to 1965, from 1968 to 1973 and the last tour from 1979 to 1983. He became aware of a great change in the mood in North Korea when he returned in 1968. Before that date, foreigners from fellow Communist countries like him had been free to travel around the whole country; afterwards, Izidor and his fellow diplomats were locked inside Pyongyang, and had to apply for official permission to move around the country, permission that was granted extremely rarely. The diplomatic lockdown reflected a deeper paranoia.
    The two great moments of