Ri Il-gyu said Kim Jong-un’s blood pressure “must be extremely high” (Image: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
Kim Jong-un has a strange ritual that makes people "uncomfortable" and his face is "always red" like he's been drinking alcohol, a former North Korean diplomat has claimed.
Ri Il-gyu, 52, a senior diplomat previously based in Cuba who recently defected to South Korea, said the North Korean dictator, who is believed to be 40, had "extinguished hope" in the hermit kingdom.
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He said he defected due to his "disillusionment" with the regime and the possibility of facing a "bleak future", having decided that Kim is simply "ordinary", despite his enduring personality cult, reports The Times.
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Ri, a Spanish speaker who worked in Cuba for nine years, said: "In person, Kim Jong-un is just an ordinary human.
"Up close, you can't help but think his blood pressure must be extremely high; his face is always red like he's been drinking, even redder than on screen. He looks almost like a Native American."
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Ri Il-gyu said Kim’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, is often seen with her father (Image: KIM Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Ri revealed that Kim's pride in his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who is thought to be aged between ten and 12 and is often spotted out and about with her father, is disliked by many North Koreans.
"Since she was a toddler, whenever Kim Jong-un was in a good mood, he would bring her out, saying, 'I will show you my princess'," he said.
"It was intriguing when she was first revealed, but as she appeared in official state events like military parades, it became increasingly uncomfortable."
He said after enduring "all sorts of humiliation" under "these people", the thought of his children "bowing to that little girl" was "unbearable", and many North Koreans "probably felt the same".
Ri, who worked as a counsellor at the embassy in Havana, escaped the country with his wife and children in November, but this was only recently established after he provided an interview to Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
The defector, who was reportedly praised by Kim and met the tyrant face-to-face over tea, is thought to be the most senior figure to have fled the regime since Thae Yong-ho, the deputy ambassador in London, who escaped in 2016.
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Ri Il-gyu said the thought of his kids "bowing to that little girl" was "unbearable" (Image: Dong-A Ilbo via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Ri said every North Korean "thinks at least once" about living in South Korea but suggested he had also become disenchanted with the Kim dynasty after not being allowed to seek medical treatment in Mexico for a back issue.
The ex-diplomat said this was due to a poor performance review and hinted that it could have been influenced by North Korea's class system. Ri allegedly was in the "clerical" category, which is "less favourable" to "worker" or "soldier".
Defectors often spend a number of months being grilled by South Korean authorities to make sure they're not spies, with Ri likely to be in possession of useful information on the regime, according to the Times.
He confirmed that Ri Yong-ho, an ex-foreign minister, had been sent to a prison camp with his family on corruption charges, for example.
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There has been much speculation about Kim's health over the years, with rumours circulating that he underwent a major operation with an uncertain recovery in April 2020, the BBC reported last year.
Further health concerns about the Supreme Leader were fuelled by fluctuations in his weight. Kim gained weight over the years he was in power, leading people to believe he may have had diabetes or gout.
He was later spotted looking much thinner in 2021, sparking fears that he was unwell and leading to state television airing concerns over his rapid weight loss.
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