Kim's "Son" Tried Japan's Soaplands

Japantoday.com
July 15, 2002

In spring of 2001, a man believed to be Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of North Korea's enigmatic ruler Kim Jong Il, was caught attempting to enter Japan illegally, and after several days of detention, deported to China. During questioning, Kim had told Japanese immigration authorities his intended purpose was to "visit Tokyo Disneyland.

"Well, reports Shukan Shincho (July 18), at least Kim told half the truth. But rather than Disneyland, it appears the 31-year-old possible heir apparent to North Korea's communist dynasty had a good part of his time sloshing around inside a soapland in Tokyo's Yoshiwara district, where he received the loving ministrations of Miss Haruka Sonoda (a pseudonym), age 22.

"I thought my heart would stop when I found out who he really was," says Sonoda. "He word a polo shirt under a vest, and had a gold chain around his neck. When I called the boss of our shop, he confirmed it: it was definitely Kim, no mistake about it.

"Sonoda, described as having long hair and voluptuous curves, is a star attraction at bathhouse "Y," one of the area's more deluxe establishments, which charges visitors 80,000 yen for 120 minutes of sudsy revelry."

Around the start of 2001, he visited the shop and asked for me three days in a row," Sonoda recalls to Shukan Shincho. "Once though, he received a call on his cell phone requesting he rush to Akasaka, and he dashed right out."In addition to his cavortings at the Yoshiwara soapland, Kim had been seen at a Korean night club in the swank Akasaka district, and was rumored to be spending the nights with a Korean hostess.

"I called him Wong," Sonoda continues. "He said he did business in Hong Kong and spoke to me in a mixture of broken English and Korean. He showed me photos of his children and invited me to accompany him to Chinatown in Yokohama, but I begged off. Who knows? There's all that talk about Japanese being abducted to North Korea; it might have happened to me too.

"Sonoda, who was certainly in a position to observe, also mentioned that "Wong" had a dragon tattooed on his back. According to Pyon Jin Il, editor of the "Korea Report," Kim Jong Nam is known to have such a tattoo.

Shukan Shincho also mentions that Sonoda recalls her customer's procreative member as having been remarkably deficient in terms of size.

"But he visited here every day, and paid with a credit card. He also tipped generously," she says.

The hostess at the Akasaka Korean club confirmed Sonoda's story, telling another reporter that so small was her customer's member that the condom kept slipping off.

According to Pyon, Kim is believed to have made at least 10 secret visits to Japan, ostensibly for purposes of procuring technology to be used for production of armaments.

"It's inconceivable that he would NOT have gone to places like night clubs and soaplands," Pyon tells Shukan Shincho. "In fact, he probably went straight there, before going anywhere else."