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Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

gq.com

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Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#21

Post by dreen »

oneiric wrote: post #15

Can someone explain the situation that started this? "he signed a one-year contract to teach sushi-making skills to young chefs in Pyongyang" Was this just in the classified ads? I thought North Korea was closed off from the world and Japan an enemy. Was this a low point in military tensions? Similarly what kind of flights went between Japan and DPRK?

I am guessing this was during the reign of Kim Il-sun when the country was apparently faring a bit better, and there were less sanctions etc. Also, did everybody in USA stop consuming sushi during war with Japan? Was it forbidden after the Pearl Harbor?

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#22

Post by vinceguidry »

mitchi wrote: post #20

I'm still amazed at how he stayed there 20+ years and never learned Korean.

He probably realized early on that it wasn't in his best interests to, and so just turned that part of his brain off. Curiosity seems like a dangerous thing in North Korea.

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#23

Post by indiecore »

dreen wrote: post #21
oneiric wrote: post #15

Can someone explain the situation that started this? "he signed a one-year contract to teach sushi-making skills to young chefs in Pyongyang" Was this just in the classified ads? I thought North Korea was closed off from the world and Japan an enemy. Was this a low point in military tensions? Similarly what kind of flights went between Japan and DPRK?

I am guessing this was during the reign of Kim Il-sun when the country was apparently faring a bit better, and there were less sanctions etc. Also, did everybody in USA stop consuming sushi during war with Japan? Was it forbidden after the Pearl Harbor?

I don't think they had sushi in the west then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sushi#Appearances_in...

Wikipedia was pretty unhelpful but there don't seem to be many western references until the 1950s and it probably wasn't popular until the 80s when Japanese culture started getting big.

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#24

Post by Wingman4l7 »

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #19
Taylorious wrote: post #2

I don't normally upvote non-tech things on HN, but that was one of the most fascinating articles I have read in awhile. I started to idly read it, but immediately become engrossed.

I read this in a print version of GQ (call me old fashioned), and as it turns out, they come out with pretty fascinating topics regularly. I think the urban explorers article or coast guard rescue a few years back piqued my interest.

For those who were interested in reading the urban explorers article, like I was: http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201303/urban-expl...

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#25

Post by SilasX »

Kim Jong-il reveled in his enjoyment of sushi!? Does that strike anyone else as just ... distasteful, even by his standards? That would be like Japan opening up a McDonald's right where one of the A-bombs went off.

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#26

Post by bricestacey »

uvdiv wrote: post #10

After eight years in captivity, she made a life-or-death escape from her guards after being sent to Vienna to promote Kim's latest film. Could someone explain how Austria permitted slaves to be held within its borders? Is this some sort of diplomatic privilege? This would be 1986 [1]. edit: Or a parallel (?) situation, Cuban athletes "escaping" from government minders inside the USA (2002 [2]). What power do foreign…

Elsewhere in the story the translator had a Dominican passport. It seems likely they traveled using forged documents and first, to Japan. Kind of like how Americans go to Mexico in order to get to Cuba and vice versa.

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#28

Post by nitrogen »

dreen wrote: post #21
oneiric wrote: post #15

Can someone explain the situation that started this? "he signed a one-year contract to teach sushi-making skills to young chefs in Pyongyang" Was this just in the classified ads? I thought North Korea was closed off from the world and Japan an enemy. Was this a low point in military tensions? Similarly what kind of flights went between Japan and DPRK?

I am guessing this was during the reign of Kim Il-sun when the country was apparently faring a bit better, and there were less sanctions etc. Also, did everybody in USA stop consuming sushi during war with Japan? Was it forbidden after the Pearl Harbor?

Quoting a dead comment:

indiecore 14 minutes ago | link [dead]

I don't think they had sushi in the west then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sushi#Appearances_in...

Wikipedia was pretty unhelpful but there don't seem to be many western references until the 1950s and it probably wasn't popular until the 80s when Japanese culture started getting big.

The term "sushi" does seem to skyrocket around 1980: http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sushi

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#30

Post by rosser »

As noted by many of the other comments, this is a fascinating article in so many different respects, but the most interesting take-away for me personally is a little detail that shows just how far the ripples cast from a seemingly small action can reach.

If one day, decades ago, a teenaged boy's co-worker and friend hadn't wanted to live like "normal" folks instead of scroungers, and shared a sushi dinner with his friend, Dennis Rodman probably wouldn't have ended up visiting the DPRK decades later, causing all the resulting foofaraw. But for that one little choice, a subsequent event that at least flashed across the awareness of most of the First World, and who knows how much of the rest of it, wouldn't have happened.

It's not necessarily something of geo-political consequence, but if that's not the notional "butterfly flapping its wings in China", I'm not sure what is.

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