(CHEERING)
(BAND PLAYING MUSIC)
NARRATOR: Kim Jong-Un, the current leader of North Korea,
has his own girl band.
Each member handpicked by him.
But their act has a sinister edge.
(SINGING IN KOREAN)
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS)
NARRATOR: Their show ends with a vision of the end of the world...
a nuclear Armageddon.
JERROLD: It's simply impossible to understand Kim Jong-Un
and predict his actions
without putting that in the context of his father and... grandfather.
NARRATOR: This is the story of three men.
One family.
The first Kim... a man who tried to make himself a God.
KEN GAUSE: Kim Il-Sung was the founder of the state, the founder of the revolution.
A guy who was beloved by the people.
NARRATOR: To a son who could never match his father.
MICHAEL BREEN: Kim Jong-Il was not the obvious candidate
to be his father's successor.
He was more uncomfortable with people, he kept in the background.
He did have the status, but he never had the affection.
NARRATOR: And a grandson with his finger on the nuclear button.
(BEEPING)
(LAUGHTER)
DONALD TRUMP: North Korea should have been handled twenty years ago,
ten years ago and five years ago.
But I'll fix the mess.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
NARRATOR: Now, as it all comes to a head, this is the story of the Kims,
a family of dictators.
WILLIAM PERRY: They've been smart, and they've been ruthless
and they've been single minded on their overarching goal,
which is to preserve the Kim dynasty...
to keep the regime in power.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
(CHEERING)
NARRATOR: The first Kim ruled North Korea as if he were their God.
-(CHEERING) -(MUSIC PLAYS)
NARRATOR: But it was to become increasingly clear
that this God wasn't going to live forever.
MICHAEL: I'm the only journalist as far as I know,
Seoul-based journalist, who's ever met Kim Il-Sung.
And that's this moment.
Uh, that's me with the hair.
When I, sort of, spoke to him,
I just got an impression that he was a little bit out of it,
a bit sort of vague, it was kind of like...
a little bit distracted.
We were later told...
that he was already sick by this time,
was in bed, got up for our meeting, went back to bed afterwards,
so he wasn't in good shape.
In his sixties, this goiter on the side of his neck...
about the size of a fist, just appeared.
It continued to grow, grow, grow.
KEN: And I think he ultimately came to the conclusion
that he needed to have a succession plan.
NARRATOR: So the world was wondering who he would choose to be the next leader.
The favorite was his brother.
In the beginning, it was assumed
that his heir apparent was going to be his younger brother, Kim Yong-Ju.
And that person was the head, uh, of surveillance of the system,
kind of, the power behind the throne.
NARRATOR: The other obvious candidate was his son by his second marriage,
said to be highly intelligent and like his father.
KEN: He also had a son
who was very popular within the military...
beloved by many parts of the old guard.
NARRATOR: The person no one was expecting to succeed
was his other son, Kim Jong-Il, the head of propaganda.
KEN: He had no experience in the military,
privileged, raised in a bubble.
He's enamored with movies and things like that.
NARRATOR: Kim Jong-Il decided he wanted to be the next leader after his father,
but all he really knew about was movies.
JERROLD: The Godfather is a very significant movie for Kim Jong-Il.
It can be seen as almost a literal model for the Kim dynasty.
NARRATOR: Jerrold Post's job was to brief the President of the United States
on the mind of Kim Jong-Il.
I was trying to understand what shaped this individual.
From what we know he was, uh, on the one hand, pampered.
There's a story... he had someone
whose only job was to examine each grain of rice
before it passed his precious lips.
His mother died when he was but a child.
At the same time, he had little contact with his father...
so Kim Jong-Il was a lonely boy, an isolated boy.
He had a need to feel validated, to feel loved.
At the same time, he was living in the shadow of his father.
MICHAEL: Kim Jong-Il was not the obvious candidate
to be his father's successor...
but he made up for it by becoming, uh, his father's great propagandist.
(CHEERING)
NARRATOR: The young Kim wanted to impress his father and gain power.
He decided to try to make great films...
that would put North Korea on the map.
KEN: By the time that he got into the party apparatus
he had really kind of gravitated toward film
as being a way of perpetuating the legitimacy of the North Korean regime.
And he starts to use the North Korean film industry
to try to gain the respect of his father.
NARRATOR: The problem was...
he didn't think the North Korean film industry was any good.
MICHAEL: He was a bit of a critic, he would...
look at these movies and just go, "This is rubbish."
And if you're Kim Jong-Il,
you know if you can't, sort of, develop the talent locally,
then you hire externally.
NARRATOR: Kim looked to his neighbors, the regime's bitter rivals, South Korea,
and came up with a fiendish plan.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
SHIN JEONG-KYUN: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) In South Korea at the time
my father was the best director...
and my mother was the best actress.
(IN KOREAN) My heart is overwhelmed. I don't know what to say.
MICHAEL: They were, sort of, the Brad and Angelina of their day
in the South Korean movie world.
Actress Choi Eun-hee is reported missing in Hong Kong.
MICHAEL: Then she disappeared in Hong Kong.
(IN KOREAN) My father told me, "Don't worry."
"I'll find her and bring her back."
NARRATOR: So the film director went to Hong Kong,
to search for his wife.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
SHIN JEONG-KYUN: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) When father disappeared as well...
I was really shocked.
The first year, I thought they would eventually come back...
and the next, I thought they may not.
The year after that, I thought they must have died.
It was a dark time for me.
Then we received some recordings that were smuggled out of North Korea.
(RECORDING OF WOMAN SPEAKING KOREAN)
(IN ENGLISH) This is my mom, mom's voice.
(RECORDING CONTINUES)
(RECORDING OF MAN SPEAKING KOREAN)
This is my father.
(RECORDING CONTINUES)
Kim Jong-Il. This is Kim Jong-Il.
(RECORDING CONTINUES)
NARRATOR: The arrival of the tapes,
years after the filmmakers had gone missing,
finally revealed the incredible truth:
the couple had been abducted by the North Koreans.
To alert the outside world to their fate,
they secretly recorded themselves in conversation with Kim Jong-Il.
This was the first time anyone outside North Korea had heard his voice.
Let me explain the process to both of you.
I've had my eye on you in terms of film production.
I just said, "Bring them to me."
NARRATOR: In 1978,
the first Kim is in control of North Korea,
but his son, Kim Jong-Il, wants to succeed him.
He's doing everything he can to please his father and win power.
The kidnapping of the South Korean filmmakers is going to plan.
The actress is being brought to him.
(IN KOREAN) My mother was constantly moved between boats
until she arrived in North Korea over a week later.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
SHIN JEONG-KYUN: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) She said she felt an indescribable fear.
She asked someone where she was going.
He replied, "You are going to Kim Jong-Il."
MICHAEL YI: When she landed...
Kim Jong-Il approached her...
shook her hand.
And what he said? "Welcome to North Korea."
MICHAEL: Once they'd arrived he said the reason I've brought you here
is to help our movie-making, help improve our industry.
And this is what they did for several years.
MICHAEL YI: In eight years, they made seven films.
Kim Jong-Il provided all kinds of support:
facilities, studios, financing, everything.
Kim Jong-Il was so happy.
"Oh, they are my people now, one hundred percent my people."
KEN: Kim Jong-Il decides
"I need some help on being able to build up my film industry,
well, why don't we go kidnap somebody from South Korea and bring them here?"
It's one of those very personal solutions
which from the outside looks very bizarre,
but when you look at it from the inside of North Korea,
this is a decision made by an individual who had no checks and balances on him.
And so he decided, "Make this happen" and it was done.
NARRATOR: His plan was to use them
to win international recognition for the North Korean film industry,
which would prove his worth to his father.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
KIM JONG-IL: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) Let's penetrate the European market.
Go to film festivals in Europe.
Let's make the South Korean bastards jealous.
(LAUGHS)
(IN ENGLISH) So they started to allow them to travel abroad together.
So he started to make his escape plan.
I was selected to handle this operation.
We, uh, told all the American embassies in European countries what to do
in case they escape.
NARRATOR: Now the couple had gained Kim's trust,
they traveled to Vienna, supposedly on a business trip
to discuss film distribution.
The next morning, they managed to slip past their guards.
In the hotel's lobby, they met a journalist who bundled them into a taxi.
With their guards soon following,
the filmmakers were now players in a real-life car chase.
Then, by pure luck,
their car passed through some lights, just as they were changing.
They headed straight for the American Embassy...
and were finally free.
(IN KOREAN) When I heard that my parents had escaped, my joy was indescribable.
I'd thought that I would never see them again.
(REPORTERS SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
Today's conference is held at the request of Mr. Shin and Miss Choi.
REPORTER: You've had a rare chance to see the North Korean leadership up close.
What's your impression of that leadership?
Thank you.
(IN KOREAN) The fact that they had to resort to kidnapping us
means they don't understand the West.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
SHIN JEONG-KYUN: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) From his perspective,
he improved the North Korean film industry by kidnapping them.
But I'll hate Kim Jong-Il forever
for having split up our family.
MICHAEL YI: He believed he can do anything he wants to do.
He was that kind of person.
NARRATOR: For Kim Jong-Il though,
the North Korean film industry was on the map.
He also put his propaganda department into overdrive,
pumping out films and television
praising his father as the greatest leader the world had ever seen.
(SERENE MUSIC PLAYS)
VOICEOVER: Nobody in the world
has ever dedicated all his life to the people's cause for so many years,
and undergone so many hardships, as our leader has done.
Whenever I think of the leader working restlessly for the people's happiness,
I feel my eyes moisten.
MICHAEL: It was in the seventies and eighties,
that the personality cult took off and went into the stratosphere
and that was under the direction of his son, Kim Jong-Il.
(CHILDREN SINGING IN KOREAN)
NARRATOR: He stepped up his statue-building program
to heap praise on his father.
REPORTER: A towering tribute to Kim's personal velocity...
higher than the Washington Monument.
MICHAEL: He intensified the personality cult of his father
to demonstrate that he was more worthy than anybody else to succeed.
NARRATOR: And at the same time his rivals fell away.
His uncle's health deteriorated,
and Kim Pyong-Il's mother fell out of favor,
which left the way clear for Kim Jong-Il.
(CHEERING)
NARRATOR: To the surprise of his placemen in the North Korean power structure,
the Great Leader appointed his son, known as the Dear Leader,
as successor in the event of his mortality.
(APPLAUSE)
KEN: When you look at what North Korean policy is all about,
it doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you tie it into the Kim family.
If you look at it, it's basically a family-run dictatorship.
It's unique to the whole Communist experience.
(CHEERING)
NARRATOR: Kim Jong-Il had achieved his ambition,
but he still had a problem.
(SOLDIERS CHANTING)
DONALD MCCORMACK: Turning North Korea
into the world's first hereditary Communist monarchy
has apparently not been well received by the country's military.
KEN: There was a military pushback against hereditary succession.
The military didn't believe this person had what it took to be the leader...
so Kim Jong-Il had to manufacture legitimacy.
In order to feel secure in this position, he has to come in with an iron fist.
NARRATOR: By the start of the 1980s,
North Korea had their next leader lined up.
But he looked like a man with something to prove.
JERROLD: The US Government was gravely concerned.
Kim Jong-Il was dangerous,
he was living in the shadow of his father.
And he had a need to be respected.
REPORTER: America's top of the line spy plane, the SR71,
routinely flies at the edge of space, at three times the speed of sound.
Its spy cameras are capable of looking hundreds of miles into hostile territory,
providing the US with some of its most detailed intelligence.
JERROLD: He was shaped from boyhood on,
you have to defend yourself against the West,
and his provocations became more reckless.
.Good evening, the United States now insists there is no doubt about it.
North Korea fired a missile at an American reconnaissance or spy plane yesterday.
It was, according to the State Department, an act of lawlessness.
NARRATOR: As the chosen next leader, Kim Jong-Il was now in the driving seat,
and starting to take charge of running North Korea.
He would prove to make even wilder decisions than his father,
with even less grasp of what the consequences might be.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
NARRATOR: One of his first moves was to put his embassies to work,
to bring him his favorite feature films.
MICHAEL: Kim Jong-Il got all the latest movies illegally copied
by diplomats in North Korean embassies around the world.
He would have them sent back to him in Pyongyang.
He had built up an enormous library of movies and he watched all of them.
He was a big fan of James Bond apparently.
And he's exposed himself to all these movies.
They'll be feeding his imagination.
How does that influence him in real terms?
NARRATOR: According to the abducted filmmakers,
Kim Jong-Il had not only seen and loved every James Bond film,
he thought they were somehow based in reality.
JERROLD: He had this huge collection of videos.
And I believed that that shaped his concept
of how to be a leader in some ways.
NARRATOR: And so a new chapter of North Korean history was about to begin,
with a man in charge acting ever more like a Bond villain.
Kim Jong-Il saw himself as impelled
to try to achieve the goals that had been implanted in him by his father.
And so we saw a ramping up of attacks
to achieve unification of the Korean peninsula.
NARRATOR: Next, he took a leaf out of his father's book.
His father had twice tried to kill the President of South Korea
Now Kim Jong-Il attempted to succeed where his father had failed.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYS)
REPORTER: President Chun of South Korea
and his party are optimistic about their six-nation tour of Asia.
NARRATOR: The South Korean delegation included Choi Jae-Wook.
(IN KOREAN) What I had to do as Press Secretary was
communicate with the people
and design Government policies accordingly.
By attracting Burma over to our side we hoped to get an economic foothold.
The event was due to start at 10.30 in the morning.
Cameramen were competing against each other for the best position.
As press secretary, I was there to keep order.
I told them to sort themselves out.
The ambassador told us to get ready...
as the president would arrive in a minute.
So we formed a line of 16 people.
I was just adjusting my tie
and remembering not to slouch.
(EXPLOSION)
NARRATOR: Kim Jong-Il cared more about impressing his people
and his military than he did about how he looked to the world.
His plot to assassinate the South Korean President
was an attempted show of strength.
(EXPLOSION)
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION CONTINUES)
CHOI JAE WOOK: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) When I recovered consciousness
the rafters were all over me.
Everyone around me was dead.
(PEOPLE SHOUTING)
CHOI JAE WOOK: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) I called out for help.
They loaded me into the car and took me to hospital.
JIM LEHRER: South Korean President Chun Doo-Hwan
returned to Seoul today to sort out
the political and personal pieces of yesterday's bombing in Burma.
A bombing meant for him that instead killed 19 other people,
including 16 Koreans, four of whom were members of Chun's cabinet.
Chun's motorcade had been delayed in traffic,
the president was minutes away when the bomb went off.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
CHOI JAE WOOK: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) A Burmese court confirmed...
North Korea was behind the attack.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
I feel extremely sad when...
I think of those who died.
They were friends.
NARRATOR: Ronald Reagan flew to South Korea...
and gave a speech to the American troops stationed in the Demilitarized Zone.
(BUGLE PLAYS)
SOLDIER: Atten-hut.
COLONEL: At ease!
Warriors, the President of the United States.
Thank you very much, Colonel.
There's no better proof
of the relationship between strength and freedom
than right here in the DMZ in Korea.
You stand between the free world and the armed forces of a system
that is hostile to everything we believe in as Americans.
The Communist system to the North is based on hatred and oppression.
Its attack against the leaders of the South Korean government in Rangoon
made clear what kind of enemy you face across the DMZ.
NARRATOR: Over the years the reckless action of the Kims
led to an international sympathy and support for South Korea.
MICHAEL: The conclusion in South Korea in the intelligence world
was that Kim Jong-Il was, kind of... out of place as a leader.
That actually he was more like some kind of Hollywood director type of character.
NARRATOR: The last thing North Korea's master showman would have wanted
was what happened next:
an opportunity for South Korea to triumph on the world stage.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYS)
News today of the 1988 Olympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee
awarded the summer games to Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
(IN FRENCH) The 16th Olympics in 1988
goes to the city of Seoul.
(CHEERING)
MICHAEL: (IN ENGLISH) Seoul, the capital of South Korea,
being awarded the Olympics was a moment of recognition,
and I felt at the time that the world
was symbolically acknowledging the ascendancy
of South Korea over North Korea.
NARRATOR: Rocked by this announcement, Kim makes a wild demand.
He announced that North Korea will co-host the Games...
and before he got an answer from the Olympic Committee,
he started building stadiums.
BRIAN BARRON: The vast propaganda machine here
is still demanding
that the North be allowed to co-host the Olympics with the South.
It's a monumental effort.
New sports complexes are growing like mushrooms all over Pyongyang.
This glittering masterpiece is known as the Chrysanthemum Stadium
because of its shape.
His nation's entire resources, money, steel, concrete
are being channeled into this.
With 150,000 seats,
the Communists claim it will be the world's biggest,
easily surpassing Seoul's Olympic Stadium.
NARRATOR: Kim's gamble was, 'build it and they will come.'
The Olympic Committee did politely pay a visit to discuss sharing the Games,
but ultimately, they decided against it.
Seoul, the South Korean capital, would host the Games alone.
And so, as excitement built in South Korea as the Games approached
there was always the worry about what the North Koreans might do next.
FRANK CARLUCCI: We certainly cannot rule out...
the possibility that they would attempt to disrupt the Olympics.
MICHAEL: The only thing North Korea's ever been internationally competitive in,
is the ability to cause trouble.
(GUN FIRE)
INTERVIEWER: What does that mean?
Well, that means a bit of terrorism basically.
PETER: This week the South Koreans did some pretty public advertising.
on how prepared they are to keep the Games secure.
An elite anti-terrorist task force has been in training here
for more than two years, perfecting ways to overpower hijackers...
(GRUNTING)
PETER: ...preparing for the worst.
JERROLD: Not having the supreme honor of hosting the Olympics
must have been so humiliating for Kim
that if he wasn't going to have them, nobody was.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYS)
REPORTER: The Olympic Flame which burns in Seoul
is more than a symbol of preparedness.
It heralds the emergence of a country
which has become the new economic miracle of the 20th century.
NARRATOR: As the '88 Seoul Olympics approaches,
tensions escalate between the Kims and South Korea.
REPORTER: The Seoul Olympics will have the distinction of being
the most heavily guarded sporting event in history.
(SLOW MUSIC PLAYS)
KEN: The separation between South Korea and North Korea was becoming apparent,
everyone felt the fear of possible terrorism.
REPORTER: A US carrier task force is even sitting off-shore,
as a deterrent to possible North Korean aggression.
NARRATOR: Kim Jong-Il appealed to the Soviet Union and China
to boycott the Games,
but even his Communist allies let him down,
and decided to take part.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYS)
KEN: He had spent a lot of time and effort courting fellow Communist countries,
and, uh, the fact that many of them were going to come to the Olympics,
uh, was a slap in the face.
For Kim Jong-Il and his father,
it really turned their vision of the world upside down.
They were increasingly desperate over the situation.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
(IN KOREAN) The day before we left the hotel...
we received the explosives.
While we were waiting in the airport...
I set the timer on the bomb to explode after nine hours.
(BEEPING)
KIM HYUN HEE: (IN KOREAN) The bomb looked like a bottle of whiskey...
and a Panasonic radio.
I placed the bag containing the bomb in an overhead locker.
When we arrived in Abu Dhabi we got off the plane.
(BEEPING CONTINUES)
The final destination was Seoul.
For a moment I thought...
of how they were all about to die.
But I had to eliminate that thought.
(BEEPING CONTINUES)
MAN: And... recording. Yeah. Two one zero...
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
A Korean Airlines jet carrying 115 people on a flight from Iraq
vanished today somewhere near Burma.
NEWSREADER: As aircraft search for the wreckage of the Korean airliner,
reports of a possible bomb plot begin to surface,
leading investigators to think Flight 858 may have been a terrorist target.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)
NEWSREADER 2: Relatives of the 95 passengers and 20 crew
began gathering as news of the disappearance spread.
All but two on board were of Korean origin.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYS)
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)
(IN KOREAN) I thought I was contributing to reunification
by damaging the enemy.
(CRYING)
(IN KOREAN) North Korea is a place where you fulfill an order
just as a soldier would.
KEN: North Korean operatives were well-trained...
and they were carrying out a mission
that they were told directly by Kim Jong-Il.
They nearly got away with it.
KIM HYUN HEE: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) After it happened I was arrested.
In case of failure...
we were given a poison capsule
to commit suicide with
but they hit me as I was biting into it.
BRIAN: The mouth of twenty-six-year-old Kim Huyn-Hee was taped up
to prevent her poisoning herself.
Miss Kim, and another North Korean agent who did commit suicide,
blew up a South Korean airliner killing over a hundred people.
(PEOPLE CRYING, TALKING)
NARRATOR: Kim Jong-Il's agent
was sentenced to death for her act of mass murder,
but she was later pardoned by the South Korean President,
who stated that she was a brainwashed victim of the real culprit,
the Kim regime.
(IN KOREAN) As a person who has committed a terrible crime...
I just begged them...
to kill me quietly.
When I was being interrogated by the police
I spotted the Olympics on a TV screen.
NEWSREADER: For the next two weeks
a worldwide audience will be treated to the 24th Olympic Games.
South Korea, whose capital is the site,
and whose country is in the world's eye as never before.
MARK LIFTKE: A moment of national pride,
especially when more than 9000 athletes finally marched in,
the largest number in Olympic history.
The first Games in three decades
with the US, China and the Soviet Union all competing.
-(CHEERING) -(SINGING)
KIM HYUN HEE: (SPEAKING IN KOREAN) Seeing this made me ask...
"Why had North Korea had tried to stop such a wonderful thing happening?"
MICHAEL: The Olympics in a way were the end of a disastrous decade
but were just the eve of a far more disastrous one for the North Koreans.
Welcome, athletes of the world.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS)
NARRATOR: The success of the South Korean Olympics
was kept from the North Korean people.
Instead they watched TV shows like this.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)
(SPEAKING IN KOREAN)
NARRATOR: Kim Jong-Il was making himself like his father,
a God in the eyes of his people.
And he was about to use his power more wildly and extravagantly
than anyone would have imagined.
(MUSIC ENDS)