Japan deports 'Kim's detained son'

TOKYO, MAY 4. Japan today deported a man believed to be the eldest son and heir- apparent of the North Korean leader, Mr. Kim Jong-il. He was arrested on Tuesday as he tried to enter the country for a holiday at Disneyland.

According to Japanese reports, Mr. Kim Jong-nam acknowledged his identity after proffering a passport from the Caribbean state of the Dominican Republic.

``I am Kim Jong-nam,'' he had told police. ``I wanted to go to Disneyland.''

Almost nothing is known about the family of the Stalinist leader, Mr. Kim Jong-il, who inherited the poverty- stricken state from his father seven years ago. He is now believed to grooming the ``Little General'', as his son is known, to succeed him.

The man claiming to be Mr. Kim Jong-nam arrived in Tokyo on a Japanese Airlines flight from Singapore. Suspicions were raised when he was said to have been unable to speak Spanish and the name on the passport was Pang Xiong, considered unlikely for the Dominican Republic.

Japanese media said he had entered the country illegally on two other occasions using the passport. There is no indication that he was seeking asylum.

Inside North Korea on Thursday, there was not a hint that anything untoward was happening. Mr. Kim Jong-il kept to his schedule and held five hours of talks with a European Union delegation including the Commissioner, Mr. Chris Patten.

Chairman Kim appeared to be in a relaxed mood. Mr. Patten said the talks were ``frank, informal and friendly - there was no moment at all when I sensed the temperature drop in the room''.

It is not known exactly where the Kim family lives, let alone where they take their holidays. But Mr. Kim Jong-nam is believed to be interested in information technology and to like sushi.

South Korean sources say that he studied in Geneva and Moscow and has travelled in Europe. His mother is Chairman Kim's former wife, the actress, Ms Sung Hae-rim.

The first pictures that reached beyond the ``hermit kingdom'' last year showed the Little General as a chubby boy in shorts some 20 years ago. The picture on the passport on Thursday revealed a fat man with cropped hair.

Mr. Kim was accompanied by two women in their thirties and a boy of four, who are thought to be family members. He said he planned a four-day stay in Japan.

Assuming that the younger Kim's identity is confirmed, his desire to visit an all-American theme park in Japan is a fresh example of the dynasty's unblushing hypocrisy.

North Korea's propaganda machine never ceases to lambast both Japan and America. The latest edition of the Pyongyang Times declared that ``the intellectual level of Japan equals that of beasts'', while state media have daily condemned the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, as a war- mongering maniac. - FTelegraph Group Limited, London, 2001

DPA reports:

The group of four people was whisked quickly out of Japan today aboard a flight from Narita international airport to China. It was believed that the authorities in Japan, which does not have diplomatic ties with North Korea, wanted to avoid embarrassment by deporting Mr. Kim before his identity could be officially confirmed.

According to news reports, it was discovered during the detention of the group that its members had plane tickets to Beijing that had been dated for Monday.

Some North Korea watchers in Japan speculated that he came to Japan in an attempt to further his knowledge about the information technology industry.

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