Moscow: The eldest son of North Korea`s late
leader Kim Jong-Il is having financial problems after being
cut off by the Stalinist state for doubting his country`s
succession policy, a Moscow newspaper said on Friday.
The Argumenty i Fakty weekly said in its Internet
addition that Kim Jong-Nam was recently kicked out of a luxury
hotel in the Chinese gambling mecca of Macau over a USD 15,000
debt.
It cited Macau administration sources as saying that the
eldest Kim -- seen as the likely successor until being caught
entering Japan on a fake passport in 2001 -- had lived a
luxurious lifestyle that included gambling and dinners at
exclusive restaurants.
But a source at the prestigious Grand Lapa Hotel that
Jong-Nam reportedly frequented told the paper that the eldest
Kim was recently expelled from his 17th-floor room because of
a cancelled credit card.
"He gave us his Visa Gold card but it ended up having no
money" on the account, the mass-circulated paper quoted an
unnamed source at the hotel as saying.
Argumenty i Fakty speculated that Jong-Nam`s latest
problems began when he told Japan`s Tokyo Shimbun newspaper in
January that his father had been opposed to a third-generation
succession.
"(Heredity succession) does not fit socialism and my
father was against it," he was quoted as saying at the time.
The late Kim handed over power to 40-year-old Jong-Nam`s
younger half-brother Kim Jong-Un upon his death in December.
"It looks like the Politburo has decided to punish the
`Communist playboy` and stopped sending him money," Argumenty
i Fakty quoted The Macau Post Daily director Harald Bruning as
saying.
The weekly cited an unnamed Macau administration as
saying that the local authorities were generally nervous about
the eldest son`s presence in the region.
"Who knows what might happen to him. What if there is an
assassination attempt against him, a blast or a contract
killing? We do not need problems."
The same official said Jong-Nam`s luxury apartment that
he rented for his wife was paid for by the Chinese secret
service while his spending money came primarily from North
Korea.
PTI
