Today, Kim Kwon Jin lives in Seoul. He was one of the bankers working for the dictator Kim Jong Il.
Seeking salvation from almost certain execution, Jin flees to South Korea.
After his escape, when he is now safe,
he reveals some of the most hidden and dirty secrets related to the regime in Pyongyang.
In this video, we will share with you what the fugitive from the regime in North Korea - Kim Kwon Jin,
who was one of the treasurers allowed behind the scenes of the regime in North Korea - told.
As well as other information from additional sources.
CONSCIOUSNESS
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's birthday present was always meant to be generous.
North East Asia was supposed to procure $20 million for February 16 each year.
The day on which Ir celebrates his birth.
"That was our main task - to raise money for the leadership," recalled Kim Kwon Jin,
former manager of North East Asia Bank in Pyongyang for years.
The president of the bank was Jang Son-taek, Kim Jong-un's uncle, whom he executed 2 years after his father's death.
The banker - Kim Kwon Jin personally prepared the reports for the North Korean leader every month.
He did his job so well that in 2002 he was sent abroad together with his wife and son.
They went to Singapore, where Jin was tasked with managing the North East Asia Bank branch there.
Just a few months later, however, Jin's joyous promotion turns into the family's worst nightmare.
He falls into the sights of the North Korean authorities.
"My superiors told me that confidential information about the North Korean regime had been leaked from Singapore,
which had been passed on to the American and Japanese secret services,"
says the former banker, who at the time was quickly becoming an enemy of the regime and suspected of treason.
"Knowing so much is dangerous!"
He admits that even then he was critical of the regime in North Korea, but categorically denies that he was a whistleblower.
Because it was clear to him what punishment awaited him there,
he decided to get ahead of the events and decided to quickly escape to South Korea, together with his wife and son.
Today he lives in Seoul and works at the Institute for National Security Strategies.
He says he has repeatedly received death threats from the North Korean regime,
even temporarily having to use bodyguards.
The reason is that Kim is doing something that Pyongyang doesn't like at all,
and that is that he has leaked things from the kitchen of the dictatorial regime,
talking about the incredible security measures and the general paranoia.
"Everything about our bank and our business operations was top secret.
No one was allowed to know how much money we raised and where we were sending it," says Kim.
Then he shared about the infamous "Room 39".
It was there that all revenues were collected, and not only those from the bank's financial transactions.
Behind this nondescript name hides an office in Pyongyang, which is directly subordinate to the Kim dynasty.
An office whose main task is to raise - through various channels and through various illegal means - foreign exchange funds.
The practice in question was introduced back in the 1970s by Kim Jong Il,
who was looking for a way to collect money from outside with which to buy the loyalty of the local elites.
At that time, it was already known that the young Kim Jong Il would succeed his father Kim Il Sung.
In the decades that followed, he built a thriving parallel economy entirely separate from North Korea's bankrupt national economy.
It was built on financial fraud, export of raw materials and rockets, as well as import of luxury goods,
which were intended for gifts and incentives to loyalists of the regime.
And since the gifts had to be bigger and more lavish, so as not to offend anyone,
the dictator needed more and more financial means to satisfy the whims of his cronies.
This system has survived to this day and its appearance is almost unchanged, says Michael Raska,
an expert on security issues from Singapore.
"During the time of Kim Jong Il, North Korea made a lot of money from the export of ballistic missiles,
but because of the embargo restrictions, this trade is now almost impossible," - explains Raska.
Now they export weapons mainly to markets in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Sanctions also change the situation with the import of luxury goods.
Things that used to be imported without problems are now banned,
so Kim Jong-un is betting on other gifts for regime loyalists that are more accessible to him.
"Almost all news programs on North Korean television are reporting people who have been awarded a new apartment.
There is a construction boom in Pyongyang right now.”
In recent years, however, the pressure from abroad has been steadily increasing.
Kim Jong Un is forced to implement a dual strategy – on the one hand, he stimulates the economy,
and on the other hand, the development of the nuclear program.
But in order to maintain both at the same time, he needs a lot of money, especially since the sanctions seriously limit his options.
North Korea's first nuclear test was in 2006.
Since then, the UN Security Council has approved a total of six stages of sanctions against the country.
However, Pyongyang, for its part, skillfully manages to circumvent the measures - through undercover deals.
A few years ago, a UN expert team published a 100-page report analyzing this problem in detail.
They are in it presented many examples, specific names and cases that shed light on how North Korea,
despite the sanctions, manages to acquire prohibited and embargoed goods.
The report reveals that middlemen and shell companies from China and Malaysia play a big role in this.
"A number of North Korean firms and banks are operating regardless of sanctions.
They use experienced agents who are specially trained to transfer money and goods across the border," the report said.
It added that - despite increased financial measures against the country - Pyongyang
continues to have access to the international banking system.
"North Korean banks have representatives and bank accounts abroad, where they also maintain mixed companies.
They also use a wide-ranging network of connections with foreign nationals and companies that serve as cover.
This allows the country to pursue its goals in the most important international financial markets," the report also states.
In it, the authors appeal for caution regarding North Korean diplomats.
It is the staff of the embassies, protected by their diplomatic immunity,
who are often used for courier "services" by the regime - in order to move large amounts of cash, gold and jewels.
"The North Korean embassies were tasked with providing money.
There were even written 'norms' about who should send home exactly how much, says security expert Michael Raska.
An example of this is a case described in a UN report.
In 2015, the luggage of the first secretary of the North Korean embassy in Dhaka
seemed suspiciously heavy to customs officials at the airport in Bangladesh.
After an inspection, they found nearly 27 kilograms of gold and jewelry worth about 1.4 million dollars.
The UN report also said that the first secretary in question flew between Dhaka and Beijing at least once a month.
This suggests that it has always been used as a carrier of valuable and prohibited shipments as well.
The former banker Kim Kwon-jin still today does not stop monitoring all
all the information related to the illegal activities of North Korea.
This reminds him every day of the time when he himself was in the service of the regime.
He has been out of the country for over 15 years now,
but the thought of the fate of his parents who remained there, as well as of all his close relatives, continues to torment him.
Kim is well aware that it is not unusual in North Korea to punish the entire family of those who offend the regime.
"I have no information whether they were punished or pushed into penal camps," he says,
his voice trembling with excitement.
However, he does not regret his decision to flee the country.
The people most important to him - his wife and son - are with His privilege as a senior civil servant
has at least saved them from the punishments meted out to the relatives
of all ordinary North Koreans who try to escape the regime.
Information from individuals like Kim Kwon Jin is extremely valuable to give the rest of the world
at least a small idea of what is possibly happening in Pyongyang.
Intelligence people say it is easier to penetrate the secrets of the Vatican
than to collect data on the economy of North Korea.
Pyongyang has not published statistics since the 1960s.
Even the US Secret Service admits to rounding up its own figures
on the development of the North Korean economy by up to $10 billion.
This only shows that at this stage there is no way to talk about reliable sources of information related to North Korea.
For decades now, the regime has simply not published any statistics.
In most cases, the figures are based on external estimates with approximate accuracy.
Kim Jong Un's regime has further encapsulated the state especially after a number
of international sanctions imposed on the country.
A fact about how much the data on the economic condition of North Korea differ is found in a report from 2011.
At that time, the US government estimated GDP per capita at 612 dollars.
And according to Bank of Korea data, it amounts to $1,197. The data also testify to another fact.
This is the great contrast in the development of the two Korean countries.
South Korea, with 51 million citizens, generated a GDP of $1.4 trillion in 2016.
During the same period, North Korea, with a population of 25 million, had a GDP of just $26.5 billion.
In terms of trade, we are once again witnessing huge divergences between the two Korean countries.
In 2016, South Korea imported and exported $1 trillion.
Estimates for North Korea are only around $6 billion.
However, the most important trade partner for both countries is the same - China.
The source of this financial data is South Korea.
South Korea's Bank of Korea figures are considered relatively reliable, with the clarification that,
in relation to the North Korean economy, they are based on estimates obtained using all manner of methods,
including espionage: satellite images of agricultural areas, observations of gas emissions from factories,
as well as third-party information on the cargo of ships traveling to and from North Korea.
It is not clear where exactly goods made in North Korea are produced.
Probably a large number of them came from the vast number of labor camps similar to the Soviet Gulag,
where 120,000 political prisoners were subjected to forced labor.
"Kim Jong Un's regime is perhaps the most repressive system in the world," said Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch.
The Walk Free Foundation states in its Global Slavery Index that the number of modern-day
slaves in North Korea is around 1.1 million people.
On the other hand, its neighbor South Korea is among the 20 most important economic nations in the world.
In 2017, the country was the sixth largest exporting nation in the world, having the ninth largest GDP per capita.
It also ranks sixth in the world in economic growth for the first quarter of 2018.
The differences in the living standards of the two Korean countries are incomparable: In 2016,
the average life expectancy in South Korea was 82 years, while in North Korea it was 71.5 years.
One of the reasons for this difference can be found in the data of the World Food and Agriculture Organization /FAO/ for 2016,
where it is indicated that 10.3 million of the total 25 million inhabitants of North Korea suffered from chronic malnutrition.
If you liked this video please share it and subscribe to the channel.
Another way to support us is to like the video.
By the number of likes, we understand which content you want more of.