By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter

A former associate of the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung had been denied asylum in South Korea.

"I sought political asylum in South Korea. But a Korean Embassy official rejected me, which simply indicated that the South Korean government denied my request."

That's what Kim Il-sung's former personal shopper revealed Friday in Vienna to Yonhap News. (Kim Il-sung is Kim Jong-il's father.)

Kim Jong-ryul, 75, came into the spotlight recently after 16 years in hiding in Austria. He's now applying for asylum in the country. He had published his own book detailing how he supplied luxuries to the North Korean leader's family.

"When a man reaches his 70s, he thinks about his death. I want to say what I have wanted to," Kim told Yonhap through the phone as to why he wrote the book.

Recalling his conversation with a South Korean diplomat and why he was rejected, he said, "They did so because they thought I was a hardcore communist with horns."

An official at the Austrian Embassy confirmed the contact with Kim, Yonhap reported.

"The conversation (with Kim) didn't go well. As far as I know, Kim suddenly ended the contact,"the official said without identifying himself.

Since the early 1970s, Kim had worked in Austria, trying to meet the needs coming from the Dear Leader's office in Pyongyang. Kim said the late North Korean leader had purchased luxury goods ranging from cars to food and poisonous gas detectors.

In 1994, he faked his own death to start his underground life.

"I have slept on the same bed for the past 5,619 nights in an underground room in a small village on the outskirts of Vienna."

He relied on a small sum of money stashed away while he was working. His daily living expense was 3.5 euro, which "wasn't even enough to buy a pack of cigarettes."

His reappearance came as a shock, yet drew media attention.

He held a press conference to announce the publication of his book and to officially file an application for asylum in Austria.

He projected that the regime wouldn't collapse as easily as one might think, because it keeps such tight control over its people. "An elite of about 10,000 want the dictatorship to continue, oppressing and suppressing the innocent people,"he said.

He has lost contact with his family - a wife, a daughter and a son - who are believed to be living in North Korea.

"My son must be about 45 and my daughter around 40 years old."

skim@koreatimes.co.kr