Kim fires ballistic missiles, his people die of hunger

Mark O'Neill November 14, 2025 17:12

While North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fires ballistic missiles, his people are dying of hunger.

This is the judgement of Thae Yong-ho, formerly the number two in the country’s embassy in London, who defected to South Korea in 2016.

He is the highest-ranking member of the North Korean elite to defect. A deputy of the South Korean Parliament from 2020 to 2023, he is Secretary-General of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council. He and his family live under police protection in Seoul.

“Kim launches satellites, builds tanks and submarines but does not use the budget for the benefit of his people. Many people die of hunger. That is what disgusted me most. Even in Pyongyang, where life is better than in the countryside, most people have no nutritious food, electricity or medical care,” he said.

Thae knows what he is talking about, because he was a member of the ruling nomenklatura. He was born in July 1962. As a young man, he learnt English and, for his undergraduate years, went to the Beijing Foreign Studies University, where he learnt Mandarin. He joined the Foreign Ministry in the 1980 and was highly regarded.

In the embassies abroad, he learnt the nature of his masters. “The diplomats must manage themselves to complete their budgets. Others are allocated sums of money they must send back to the country. That is why the diplomats are involved in trafficking arms, cigarettes and alcohol. Some have even been arrested in Europe for selling drugs. North Korea has no scruples in its quest for foreign exchange,” he said.

In Britain, he saw up close the lifestyle of the Kim family. For three days in 2015, he was the chaperon of Kim Jong-chul, elder brother of Kim Jong-un, at concerts of Eric Clapton in London.

“In his company, I realised that the Kim brothers know global politics well, especially Europe. They did their studies in Switzerland. Jong-chul’s lifestyle made me angry. We were ordered to book a suite at the Savoy (London) for 2,000 euros a night. That was more than double my monthly salary,” he said.

He describes Jong-un as brutal, impatient, quick to anger and very intelligent. “He knows his priorities and works intelligently toward them. After a visit to a turtle farm, where he had seen the animals almost dead, he ordered the execution of its director.”

His account tallies with those of other defectors to South Korea. They include members of the “Pleasure Squads” whose only mission is to serve and entertain Kim Jong-un and other leaders.

“The most attractive girls are selected to perform for Kim Jong-un, while others are chosen to satisfy lower-ranking generals or politicians,” said Park Yeon-mi, 31, who defected to the United States. “Learning how to please men is their only goal.”

They are chosen through a rigorous selection process. They must be virgins and have families who are politically loyal, with no members living abroad. The squads were first created in the 1970s.

Park said the group’s composition changed from Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un as each leader had different tastes in women. “Kim Jong-il was very short, so he preferred women who were at least 160 centimeters tall, and the women he chose had round faces,” Park said. “Kim Jong-un prefers Western types who are slim and tall. There are rumours that Kim Jong-un’s wife was originally a member of the pleasure squad.”

Parents consent to their daughters joining the pleasure squad to ensure they do not suffer from starvation.

Personal bodyguards who have defected describe a system similar to that of Imperial China. Within the palaces used by the Kim family, nearly all the staff are women. In the Forbidden City, the emperors used eunuchs.

One of the jobs of the country’s diplomats is to secure high-quality food, wines and spirits for Kim’s table.

The war in Ukraine has been, for Kim, like winning the lottery. Between October 2023 and April 2025, he sold to Russia between 4.2 and 5.8 million shells to Moscow, accounting for 40 per cent of those the Russians fired during this period, according to the Royal United Services Institute in London. He also provided 10,000 soldiers, of which 2,000 have been killed and thousands injured, according to South Korean intelligence. The state keeps 75-90 per cent of the salary paid by Russia to these soldiers.

Some of the soldiers were used as “cannon fodder” to draw fire from Ukrainian drones, enabling the Russians to locate from where the drones were being launched.

Andrew Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, said: “The North Koreans suddenly discovered that they could sell to the Russians what they never believed they could dispose of – old munitions from the Soviet era – and their soldiers. They have reaped an enormous benefit.”

The war has also earned Kim a place at the high table of diplomacy. On September 3, on the platform overlooking Tiananmen Square, he was walking next to President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping.

This is the comment of one “Pleasure Lady” who defected to South Korea, speaking of her homeland: “It is hard to believe such a country exists in the world today.”

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.