Kim Jong Il Unmasked: Michael Malice’s Unauthorized Autobiography of North Korea’s Supreme Leader

“Kim Jong Il Unmasked: Michael Malice’s Unauthorized
Autobiography of North Korea’s Supreme Leader,” produced by Jim
Epstein. About an hour.

Original release date was March 26, 2014 and original writeup is
below.

Kim Jong Il, who was the supreme leader of North Korea until his
death in 2011, was a leading authority on gymnastics, cinema,
literature, war, cooking, and the arts. He wrote 1,400 works when
he was in college, including a senior thesis that was an
achievement comparable to Columbus’ discovery of America. He
revolutionized the opera, personally discovered that Paleolithic
man originated on the Korean Peninsula, and came up with a theory
of art that was as impactful on modern culture as the Copernican
Revolution. Why did the supreme leader always wear sunglasses?
That’s because his eyes were constantly bloodshot from staying up
all night figuring out ways to help his country.

These are details from celebrity ghostwriter (and former editor
of Overheard in
New York) Michael
Malice’s new book Dear
Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il, a
strange, tragic, and humorous first-person account of the supreme
leader’s life. On March 18, 2014, at an event held at New York
City’s Museum of Sex and
sponsored by the Reason
Foundation, The New York Times columnist John
Tierney sat down with Malice to discuss the book.

Highlights from the event included a discussion of how
Malice came to write Dear Reader (1:28); why Kim Jong Il
is despised by North Koreans (7:00); how North Koreans are forced
to engage in regular self-criticism sessions in which they’re
denounced by their peers (9:00); why it was a surprise that Kim
Jong Il succeeded his father, Kim Il-sung (12:00); why there’s no
hope that political change will come to North Korea anytime soon
(20:20); Ayn Rand’s influence on Malice (23:20); why Kim Jong Il
hated the Mona Lisa (27:15); an example of a North Korean joke
(29:15); why Malice thinks the media’s coverage of Dennis Rodman’s
relationship with Kim Jong Un is deplorable (31:35); the story
behind the 1987 bombing of Flight 858 by North Korean agents
(33:20); the originis of the Korean famine (41:00); Kim Jong Il’s
“spot on critiques of U.S. foreign policy” (42:00); why North Korea
allows its citizens to reunite with family members from South Korea
(43:30); the relationship between China and North Korea
(50:00); and North Korea’s nuclear capabilities (51:15).

For more on Malice’s time in North Korea researching the book,
read his
account from the August/September
2013 issue of Reason.

View this article.