Once in the middle of 1999 I was standing in the front of the subway in Pyongyang, and there was a mass performance, all the soldiers and it was whatever--a birthday of Kim Il-sung.... There are so many festivities in Pyongyang. So all the people lined up, and thousands and thousands of people wanted to go home right after midnight. It was a rush. They all were fed up with this long, long military parade and cheering—orchestrated—so nobody wanted to stay any longer. So the people were pushing forward, forward, let's go home, and then there was, of course, order imposed by the policemen and subway personnel. And all of a sudden there were some fights. Fists and pushing further and then some shouts and then the first bloody nose. And I am a medical doctor in the middle of this. I wanted to help an old lady falling down, for example. And then there was a real.... I had never had this experience; I was feeling maybe like today in Egypt, in the middle of the mob, like Mr. Anderson Cooper here in the middle of the square.
It was like the beginning of the revolution. There were people fighting the policemen. They couldn't stop them any more. They wanted to go to the subway. They wanted to go home. There were soldiers, of course, coming in, and the people didn't care. They ripped off the uniforms, got the knives or whatever, and some...not machine guns, of course. That happened five minutes later. Then there were the guys with the machine guns and then there was order, of course.
But that was my experience. It can happen in North Korea anytime. There are people who are angry about the government. There are people who are very well aware about you. They know about the outside world. They are listening to radios. Whenever my interpreter came into our office, the first thing he asked was if we had some German newspapers and if we could listen to BBC or CNN or whatever, Voice of America, in the morning, secretly. He wanted to get the information.
And guess what? Once I was invited to one of those fashionable dinner parties and there was one high-ranking official. I forget his name. He was sitting there and he told us that of course we know we have to change; we have to get reform, economics and so on, but because of the boycott of the foreigners we can't. But you know what? There is one real natural disaster—and the North Koreans are always talking about natural disasters, flooding, drought, whatever—there is one real natural disaster and that we can't stop. And I looked behind him and you know, in every North Korean room there are two portraits, one of Kim Il-sung, the founder, and one of Kim Jong-il. He looked at those pictures and said “This natural disaster we can't stop”. That was his comment on the situation, a high official person.
Some people, as I told you, when they were drinking in the evening—a little bit of soju, a little bit of whiskey, a little bit of beer—were quite outspoken. They told me in the German language that they disliked Kim Jong-il, that they hate him, that they know he is responsible, that they think he is a spoiled rotten playboy and he does not deserve to be the leader of the state. They think he is responsible. And I can give you the guarantee that you will see the same pictures as in Egypt, one day, in Pyongyang. I'm absolutely sure about that.
But you have to trigger it. They need the information. They need the information that you will care. I was told later by East German people, East German refugees, East German relatives of mine, that the best encouragement for the East German movement to freedom was when there was some real support from the outside world, some people who cared, and some people who spoke up against Honecker, at that time.
So there is a need for some government to speak up against Kim Jong-il.