TOKYO – It’s no easy matter for anyone to go in and out of a closed-off society like North Korea freely. And meeting with the nation’s new young leader Kim Jong Un is even more so.
But much to the disbelief of experts, one Japanese individual made it, as if it were something easy and simple.
At the invitation of Kim Jong Un, Kenji Fujimoto, 66, a pseudonym, visited Pyongyang for two weeks from July 21 to August 4. Fujimoto used to work for the late former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from 1989 to 2001 as his personal
TOKYO – It’s no easy matter for anyone to go in and out of a closed-off society like North Korea freely. And meeting with the nation’s new young leader Kim Jong Un is even more so.
But much to the disbelief of experts, one Japanese individual made it, as if it were something easy and simple.
Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based journalist. His work has appeared in the Asahi Shimbun, Bloomberg, Asia Times, Jane's Defence Weekly and The Diplomat, among other publications. You can follow him on Twitter @TakahashiKosuke