Interviews with Kim Kwang-jin

My name is Kim Kwang-jin.

I was born in the Northern city of North Korea called Haesan, in Yangang province. When I was five, I went to Pyongyang because my father was recruited by the Bodyguard Command in the early 1970’s. From that point, I lived in Pyongyang in military housing.

[Bodyguard Command refers to a military unit assigned to protect the ruling Kim family.]

We lived in a separate location guarded by soldiers and we received better rations from the State. Of course almost everything was free.
So yes, we enjoyed a privileged life compared to other workers, farmers, and other ordinary North Koreans. I graduated from the Pyongyang Foreign Language Institute. I studied English for six years there. Then I enrolled at Kim Il Sung University where I studied English and English literature.

Later, I taught English at Pyongyang Computer College for six years or so. After that, I worked at ING [International Netherland Group] Northeast Asia Bank which was a joint bank between ING and the Korean Foreign Insurance Company (KFIC) which was run and controlled by Kim Jong Il’s brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek.

[Kim Jong Il (1941 – 2011) succeeded his father and led North Korea from 1994 until his death in 2011. Jang Song Thaek (1946 – 2013) was widely regarded as the second-most-powerful person in North Korea before being branded a traitor and executed by his nephew, Kim Jong Un, in 2013.]

Actually, foreign investments and foreign banks are not active in North Korea, but KFIC was an institution controlled by Kim Jong Il’s brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, so it was a very powerful institution and the deal with ING was an exception.

I worked [at ING] for six years and in 2002 served as a representative of Northeast Asia Bank in Singapore in 2002. In 2003, I decided to defect to Seoul and began living here [in South Korea].

In September 2003, Kim Kwang-jin and his family rushed to an airport in Southeast Asia to fly to freedom in Seoul, South Korea. Months earlier, Kim lived a privileged life working for the government’s overseas banking operations in Singapore. Then Kim fell out of favor after he was suspected of leaking information about the regime to foreign nationals. Before being summoned back to North Korea face severe punishment, Kim made the decision to defect with his family.

During his banking career, Kim helped earn millions of dollars for what he calls North Korea’s “Royal Court Economy,” i.e., the enterprises and often illegal schemes that financially supported the country’s totalitarian dictatorship.

Since defecting, Kim Kwang-jin helped expose the North Korean government’s underhanded financial practices. He has also become an advocate for North Korean freedom and human rights. Kim currently works at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul and is a columnist for Radio Free Asia.