Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2004 - 10:23 am:

---

quote:

To procure various foods and ingredients I made many trips abroad. Each time Kim Jong Il ordered me to go buy this or that, flight arrangements would be made and I would go off.

Fish was the most sought-after item from Japan. High-quality tuna and squid, one of Madame Ko's favorite foods, were often requested. Once I bought 1,200 kilos in total; the air-transport fees alone were exorbitant.

The reason the shipment weighed so much was that I had bought a very large Indian tuna whole. I also bought an electric saw to use to fillet the fish. I had once spent six months filleting tuna at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market, and I wanted to show Kim Jong Il and his family my technique.

In any event, here are the countries I visited and the foods I frequently bought there:

• Urumqi (in northwestern China) for fruit, mainly hamigua melons and grapes
• Thailand for fruit, mostly durians, papayas, and mangoes
• Malaysia for fruit, mostly durians, papayas, and mangoes
• Czechoslovakia for draft beer
• Denmark for pork
• Iran for caviar
• Uzbekistan for caviar
• Japan for seafood

---