TOKYO: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un does not want to fire a rocket, but feels he has to mark the anniversary of his father's death, the dead dictator's former sushi chef said Thursday.
The hermit state's long range rocket will be launched 12 months to the day that Kim Jong-Il died, his one-time personal chef, Kenji Fujimoto told journalists in Tokyo.
"I believe the launch will take place on December 17 to commemorate" the first anniversary of his death, said Fujimoto, who visited Pyongyang earlier this year and lived there for around 10 years until 2001.
"I think he is talking with the military, but I don't think he is aggressively pushing to launch a missile," Fujimoto said.
North Korea announced Saturday it will launch a rocket between December 10 and 22, a period that includes both South Korea's presidential election and Japan's general election.
Pyongyang insists it is a peaceful satellite launch, but the international community sees it as a poorly disguised test of ballistic missile technology, which is banned under UN resolutions.
"I think he is reluctant to launch because he wants to change his country's image as a hard-line state," said Fujimoto, who is promoting a book on his recent visit.
"But at the same time he must feel he needs to commemorate his father's death."
A rocket launch is necessary in the context of North Korean politics as "you have to demonstrate to your people" that you have authority, he said.
Fujimoto visited Pyongyang in July after an invitation from the country's young leader, 11 years after what he said was an escape during a provisions shopping trip to Japan.
After his visit, a picture of Fujimoto hugging Kim Jong-Un was widely distributed to media.
Fujimoto, who is among a small number of foreigners to have had personal contact with the North Korean leader, revealed Jong-Un was born on "January 8, 1983, so he will turn 30 next year."
No age has ever been confirmed for Kim, with most reports saying only that he is in his late 20s.
"When I saw him after 11 years, I had the impression that he has really grown up. My memories of him are from his childhood," he said.
Fujimoto said the messenger from Kim who invited him to Pyongyang in July arrived with a shibboleth.
"(The emissary said) 'Let's fulfil the promise we made in 2001'," said Fujimoto, explaining the promise dated from a 2001 encounter after the chef was injured in a horse-riding accident.
He said a worried Jong-Un telephoned him at midnight after the fall.
"I replied 'I'm okay' then headed to the building where Kim Jong-Un was waiting. Then I did a bit of performance, shouting 'Fujimoto is alive and well!'"
"At that moment we laughed together and he invited me to join to him and four of his favourite basketball players drinking Russian vodka," Fujimoto said.
"Then Kim Jong-Un said to me: 'You will come back after finishing your shopping in Japan, won't you? You must come back.'"
Fujimoto, who married a North Korean woman while in the service of the first family has made his living from media appearances, lectures and writings about his days in the isolated country since he returned to Japan in 2001.
Fujimoto only ever appears in public wearing aviator sunglasses and a bandana, precautions he insists are necessary to keep him safe from North Korean agents who would spirit him back to Pyongyang if they could find him.
- AFP/lp
North Korean rocket 'to commemorate' Kim Jong-Il: ex-chef
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North Korean rocket 'to commemorate' Kim Jong-Il: ex-chef
