EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Spokesman Sj. Korea: In the 9 years of Kim's rule, he did not make a single mistake! 'In all countries, when there is dissatisfaction, people take to the streets, or go out at night and draw graffiti. That never happened in Korea. ' Writes: Gino ColleaguePosted: August 08, 2020 3:21 pm Kim Jong-un (center), Alejandro Cao of Benos (circle) Kim Jong-un (center), Alejandro Cao of Benos (circle) AFP, Nur Photo Via AFP Facebook Twitter Messenger E-mail RELATED NEWS 8274961 NORTH KOREA Kim convened an emergency meeting of the Politburo and imposed a state of emergency: A vicious virus has entered our country! CROWN FREE Kim Jong-un finally spoke: 'We have thoroughly prevented the intrusion of a malignant virus into our country' The Spaniard Alejandro Cao de Benós is the only Westerner, a "foreigner", authorized to speak on behalf of the Kim Jong-un regime . He says of himself that he is the Julio Iglesias of North Korea. Kim Jong-il , Kim Jong-un's father , appointed him honorary consul of the DNRK in 2002, that is, a special delegate of the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The title is too long for a somewhat vague role. For example, the American Bloomberg writes about him as "the man you call if you want to do business in Pyongyang", the French Le Parisien goes a step further and calls him "the red baron of North Korea". Cao de Benós is also the real heir to the title of baron, a descendant of a Castilian noble family whose roots are immersed in the Iberian Iberian Valley. He is proud of that, he does not fail to boast that the titles were awarded to his ancestors "on the merits of weapons". That blood is not water, he proved in 2016, when the Spanish Guardia Civil arrested him on suspicion of international arms smuggling and confiscated his North Korean passport. The trial is still pending before a court in Murcia. He's not overly worried. He says that he doesn't really need a passport to enter North Korea, "because everyone in his homeland knows him"; there they call him Chon Sŏn-il , which can be translated as “Korea is one”. You will not hear from him in the conversation that he makes a distinction between North and South Korea. He calls the North Koreans Koreans, and the Souths are the same. In Pyongyang, he takes pictures with babies, signs autographs, shakes hands with the Supreme Leader. He corrects me when I misalign Marshall's nickname: "Kim Jong-un will earn the title of Dear Leader one day, but it will be decided by the Korean people!" From an early age, he was a militant in communist organizations and traveled to North Korea at the age of 16, after blackened at a gas station over the summer to make money. image Alejandro Cao of Benos Jose Ignacio Unanue / Nur Photo via AFP Imagine, you are 16 years old, live on the sun-drenched Spanish Riviera and head “belly for bread” to Pyongyang, an airtight concrete town to volunteer for a working threshing floor and a handful of rice. And then for 12 years. It cannot be said that he did not deserve to become one of Kim Jong-il's closest associates; a Stalinist to the core, with quiet enjoyment he defends North Korean “Juche” philosophy, communist ideals, and revolution. The conversation becomes more mundane when he talks about "imperialist cattle". Alejandro Cao de Benós is a man worthy of all contempt. An addict to the symbolic and real power delegated to him by the North Korean regime. Listening to him so confident and convinced, you will see below, no one would say he is talking about a country where the rights of his fellow citizens are trampled with impunity and where every aspect of human life is doomed to fade lethargically within the prison walls above the 38th parallel. I noticed a lot of decorations on your uniform. Full chest. What is that? - Yes, people are attracted to my North Korean People's Army uniform - my decorations are of an honorary nature, they are not the result of my service in the army. These are all civilian decorations and honors for my work in the international and diplomatic representation of North Korea. You declare that every citizen of your country is free to hold the highest party positions in the country. How? Who chooses the ruling class in North Korea? - There is no ruling class in North Korea. We are a communist country. The symbol of the party is a hammer, sickle and brush - it symbolizes the unity of workers, farmers and intellectuals. There are no differences or class-imposed superiorities between them. The party does not allow that, the people cannot do that. The vision of the father of our country, Kim Il-sung, is a collective gathered under one umbrella, it will be the same for everyone - or it will not be. In the West, the situation is different, and I understand that - but with disgust. You didn't answer my question. - Our parliament has supreme control over our laws and is responsible for electing the leadership of our country - primarily through the Central Committee of our Communist Party, which is made up of the people of North Korea. So - no way? - No, that's not true. Elections are held every five years. For example, if you are a worker or a farmer in our country - through your workers' association you are free to participate in the political life of our country as you wish, and much faster and more efficiently than in many countries in the West. Can a North Korean citizen, who is hardworking and hardworking, afford a nice house with a pool? - Not allowed. We have no pay gap here either. If you do a lot - you do it for your own country. You work from the heart, not for your own, greedy interests. You work for the collective good. There are no homeless people in Korea, everyone has the right to a roof over their head. After all, our society would reject someone who would put private interests before the interests of the people. In Korea, it is simply a matter of social hygiene, people are shaped from an early age on the principle of collective, not individual. Political and military elites do not enjoy any privileges? - Not at all! But of course we have cases of corruption - like every country in the world. In that case, these people are tried efficiently, uncompromisingly and relentlessly. Where does Kim Jong-un live, does he have a house with a pool? - No, no, no, Kim Jong-un is present every day in the Central Committee of our Workers' Party, whose headquarters are located in the center of Pyongyang, it is a building like any other, but, of course, with a greater degree of security for obvious reasons. We are in a state of continuous war readiness and permanent threat from the United States, so the complex is extremely protected. And inside that complex lives Kim Jong-un. In an ordinary apartment. Of course, there are certain state estates that serve to receive foreign delegations - but our Leader is a humble person who lives a modest life. image Page / KCNA VIA KNS / AFP So, during food shortages, the party and military nomenclature do not live any differently from others? - I was in Pyongyang during the 'Great Famine' (1995-1998, op.cit.) And I saw - high military and party officers washed their hands and bodies from the same canisters of water as the 'ordinary' people. No privileged! I saw it with my own eyes. Can you recall any other scenes from that period? What did it look like? - What can I tell you? It was just a horror. I’ve seen people, literally, die working. We had enormous floods, the embargo locked every aspect of our economy, we didn’t have the ‘requested money’ to buy food - because the international community demanded that we buy food in dollars instead of our currency. The Soviet Union fell, Eastern Europe fell, we had nowhere to ask for help. We were basically alone, lonely, surrounded by Americans. According to UN sources, about 2 million people have died. Are those numbers accurate? - No, those are the wrong numbers. About 80,000 people died. And let’s face it, it’s no less a scary number. You say it’s no less a scary number. To what extent is the Pyongyang regime responsible for the deaths of 80,000 people from starvation? - From this perspective, I would say that it may have been a mistake to be overly dependent on the countries of the failed Eastern Bloc and the USSR. But that's it. What is the average salary of a North Korean citizen? - That would be about 7,000 won. Converted into euros, about 150 euros. But you have to count on housing being free, no mortgages and loans. Health, education, it's all publicly available and free. The cost of living is incomparably simpler and does not give our people a headache. We are a country of 27 million people that has been completely bombarded by sanctions. And we import almost nothing. So what quality of life are we talking about then? Pyongyang looks like Potemkin's village, rotten tractors are rolling on empty avenues, the police are allegedly redirecting traffic ... - No, that's not true! Some journalists who come to our country are vaccinated against integrity, honor and journalistic professionalism! For example, in our country, a ban on driving on Sundays is in force because we take care of gas emissions and pollution. How many photos and videos of foreign media companies, which come to Pyongyang, do you think were taken on Sunday ?! Then why not show that part of town if there is one? - We'll show! Of course we show! But that doesn’t fit the default narrative! I've taken representatives of various news outlets around Pyongyang a million times, showing traffic jams, people don't want to film it ... Or film it - but in later processing they throw it out of the final product. They don't care. Alright. Let's change the subject. Are you familiar with BR Myers ’book -‘ Cleanest race ’(The Purest Race, op.a.)? It used to be a big hit. Myers says your country’s ideology is actually racially based nationalism that has its roots back to the Japanese occupation and their fascism. - Come on, that's funny ... image Kim Jong Un Pages Let. Myers says your regime is xenophobic. He cites frequent cases of Korean women who, under threat of death, are forced to have an abortion if they are carrying a child of a mixed race. - No, our women can marry a foreigner but with the permission of the state. But it has nothing to do with race, but with the nation. Special consent is required to promise a Korean and a Filipino or a Korean and a Croat by marriage. Do you understand what global intelligence potential threatens Korea on a daily basis? That is the only reason for such restrictions and controls. It is not a question of race, it is a question of order. Look at what’s happening to Moroccans in Spain, they’ve occupied buildings first, then blocks, then neighborhoods, and finally cities. They radically changed the profile of the city, the spirit of the place and the people. We do not want such a social conflict to happen to us. Is homosexuality tolerated in North Korea? - We do not have any law that prohibits or punishes homosexuality. But let’s say gay parades or the like are not allowed. There is no prostitution in North Korea. Zero prostitution. We don’t have sex shops and we don’t tolerate pornography. That's why people run away ...? - We opened the border with China in March. Of the hundreds of thousands of people who entered China, only a few dozen did not return. Because they were promised wealth, because they were promised luxury, money, women, why not, in exchange for - thorough slander and discrediting of Korea. Do you know how many kidnapping cases we have had by South Korean intelligence in the last few years? Dozens! And look at the miracles, everyone somehow ends up in the media with a sad story about a cruel country, about mass shootings ... What is your position on the death penalty? - I am against the death penalty for a number of different reasons, but I am a strong advocate of work camps that do a much better job in terms of re-education and re-socialization ... All right, I'll give you some information from foreign observers so we can comment on it together. Amnesty International reported 105 public executions in North Korea between 2007 and 2012. Foreign Policy writes about 60 public executions a year from 2010 onwards. The South Korean Foundation for Human Rights in North Korea cites 1,193 public executions from 2009 to date. Is this incorrect data? - No, we do not have any institution of public executions. That's a lie. Every, absolutely every piece of information you get from international NGOs is simply not true. We do not practice public executions. Full stop. Our country in 99% of cases relies on labor camps and attempts to re-socialize offenders. Many defectors say these are concentration camps, not labor camps. - Of course they say that. Because their only intention is to draw a parallel with Nazi Germany, revive the new Hitler and thus discredit and overthrow the regime. Many of our work camps are actually farms, where prisoners work from Monday to Friday, for a certain number of hours, like it or not, many of our work camps also function as factories, say for making furniture. These people were sentenced to a certain number of years and they spend those years exclusively and only - working. That is the only truth. So you officially deny the existence of political prisoners in North Korea? - I officially and unofficially deny the existence of political prisoners in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. So where and when did any dissatisfaction of our people accumulate? In all countries of the world, when there is dissatisfaction with the central government, people take to the streets, or go out secretly, at night, draw graffiti, tell the authorities and the regime that they are no longer welcome to run the country. That has never happened in Korea. Mr. Cao De Benos, you grew up in Spain. Don’t take offense, but don’t you feel stupid watching 27 million people cry out in front of the iconography of a totalitarian political dynasty? You paint them as demigods, celebrate their birthdays as if they were messiahs, add to relays ... - You don't understand the culture here. You don’t realize that the state comes first here. For God’s sake, go to Britain and take a look at the iconography of the royal wedding. We are trying here to personalize the state, to anthropomorphize it. Because the state is number one! It is an old beginning that comes from spiritual Buddhist and Confucian ideas. In this case, we here look at Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung as our fathers. And that is, in fact, the cultural background of the so-called ‘personality cult’. It is primarily cultural in nature and is characteristic of Asia in general, not just Korea. Can you tell me some of his mistakes? - Whose? The supreme leader, at the head of the DNRK for these nine years. Can you name one of his mistakes, maybe something from the domain of public policy that you didn’t like, that he should have done better? Some gaffe? - No. I found nothing I could blame him for. Seriously? In nine years in office, can’t you find any thing of a political or personal nature that you might resent? - Not as far as I can remember. Alright. - Look, we have a very complex bureaucracy and maybe sometimes it happens that the ideas of our Supreme Leader are clumsily implemented by our middle management. But that's it. How often do you meet him? What kind of man is that? - We met on several occasions. Much more with his father, Kim Jong-il. All my meetings with Kim Jong-un, for now, were of a diplomatic nature, therefore, official, we did not have the opportunity to discuss personal matters. What year was he born? Because this is still speculated about in the international community - '82, '83. or '84? - He was born in 1983. I don’t have the exact documentation in front of me at the moment, but I would say 1983. What is his state of health now? There is a lot of talk about his obesity, it is said that he is addicted to Swiss cheese, cognac, in April he was pronounced dead. - CNN pronounced him dead. It tells you how much these people are aware of the real state of affairs in our country! They couldn't have failed miserably! You accuse us of thinking that man is a god, and in fact you don't see that he is a man - and that sometimes he can get sick, not feel well, take a vacation or have private problems. But he is in good health and will continue to run this beautiful country for many happy years to come