Driving cars at seven, binge drinking vodka at 14 and being around his father’s pleasure girls throughout his teens, it is little wonder Kim Jong-un’s excessive and twisted upbringing would yield the leader North Korea has today.

Former companion Kenji Fujimoto, who spent more than a decade as the ruling family’s personal chef and Kim's playmate, is now coming forward to give the most detailed account of the leader’s troubling childhood to ever be released.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R), flanked by his uncle North Korean politician Jang Song-thaek, leaves a military parade to mark the birth anniversary of the North's late leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, in this photo taken by Kyodo February 16, 2012.

“In the palace, I had two jobs really. For Kim Jong-Il (the current leader's father), I was his main sushi chef. For Kim Jong-un, I was there to play with him, almost like a nanny,” says Fujimoto to The Daily Mail on Saturday.

"I would say I was the closest person to him when he was young. I felt like he was my own son.”

From the age of six, Jong-un spent hours of every day with the chef.

Allowed egregious privileges at a young age, Fujimoto recalls Jong-un demanding to drive a car, a Mercedes no less, at the age of seven.

“They put a little box beneath his feet to help him reach the pedals and someone gave him instruction. The first car he got was a Mercedes-Benz, and he has owned Mercedes ever since. I’d say he has more than ten now – all bulletproof.”

Around the age of 14, he began to take up smoking.

McDonald's in New York's Times Square. While the U.S. fast food giant has no prescence in the communist country, Kim Jong-un found a way to get his hands on contraband Big Mac burgers from the chain. (Shutterstock)

He would often show up at Fujimoto’s door at 3 a.m., begging for cigarettes.

Even more troubling, Fujimoto recalls Jong-un drinking at 14.

“[He] drank a lot, too, even as a young teenager – Russia’s finest vodka. Sometimes he’d drink the whole bottle all by himself.”

As time went on, the would-be despot adopted a playboy lifestyle, spending time on one of the two yachts his father bought for him. Early habits that explain recent reports that claimed the North Korean leader spent $716 million dollars in 2012 alone.

In his late teens, Jong-un found himself exposed to his sex-crazed father’s ‘pleasure brigade’ – bands of beautiful teenage girls forced to sing, strip naked and perform massages and sexual favors.

Fujimoto claims that the 18-year-old was shy with girls and hated “having relationships with multiple women.” Jong-un’s reluctance led his father to question if his son was interested in girls.

Fujimoto speculates that this hatred of his father’s womanizing is what led Jong Un to execute his uncle. Jang Song Thaek, who was responsible for picking the girls, used to make girls strip and lift their legs to “inspect their virginity.”

The live-in-chef also described an exorbitant lifestyle the family enjoyed while millions of North Koreans were dying during the country’s two decade famine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (front) and his wife Ri Sol-ju (2nd L) look on during a visit to a military base. (File photo Reuters)

“It was incredible, with an enormous chandelier and all-cream furnishings,” Fujimoto says.

“It had an Olympic-size pool, movie theatre and huge gym. The kids’ playroom was big, with remote-controlled cars everywhere and a billiard table.”

In 2001, Fujimoto fled North Korea to Japan. His escape was viewed as betrayal by the leader, who sent assassins to kill the former nanny and chef. However, a year later a North Korean official showed up at Fujimoto’s doorstep, saying that he had been forgiven and Kim requested him to return.

Reluctantly agreeing, he arrived at the leader’s palace.

“I was terrified. I had betrayed Kim Jong-Un by leaving North Korea, so he could have had me killed.”



Uncharacteristic of his notorious temperamental personality, Kim smiled at his childhood companion, hugged him, and said, “Long time no see, Fujimoto-san. Your betrayal of North Korea has been all forgiven.”

Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 13:52 - GMT 10:52