In the 1990s, Kim Jong Un and His Father Used Fake Brazilian Passports to Apply for Visas to Western Countries

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his late father Kim Jong Il used fraudulently obtained Brazilian passports to apply for visas to visit Western countries in the 1990s, five senior Western European security sources have told Reuters.

The news agency published a photocopy of two Brazilian passports reportedly used by Kim Jong Un and his father, Kim Jong Il, issued by the Brazilian embassy in Prague in 1996. Itamaraty, Brazil’s foreign ministry, said it was investigating the case. The justice ministry declined a request for comment. Calls to the North Korean embassy in Brasilia went unanswered.

According to the documents in the Reuters story, Kim Jong Un traveled under the alias of Josef Pwag, and Kim Jong Il apparently used the name Ijong Tchoi. Before the introduction of digital security measures, Brazilian passports were popular on the global black market due to the Latin American country’s ethnic diversity and political neutrality.

It was unclear whether any visas were issued. The passports may also have been used to travel to Brazil, Japan and Hong Kong, the security sources said. Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported in 2011 that Kim Jong Un visited Tokyo as a child using a Brazilian passport in 1991, before the issue date on the two Brazilian passports.

Both 10-year passports carry a stamp saying “Embassy of Brazil in Prague” with a February 26, 1996, issue date. The security sources said facial recognition technology confirmed the photographs were those of Kim Jong Un and his father.

The passport with Kim Jong Un’s photo was issued in the name of Josef Pwag with a date of birth of February 1, 1983. So little is known about Kim Jong-un that even his birth date is disputed. He would have been 12 to 14 years old when the Brazilian passport was issued. Kim Jong Un is known to have been educated at an international school in Berne, Switzerland, where he pretended to be the son of an embassy chauffeur.

Kim Jong Il’s passport was issued in the name Ijong Tchoi with a birth date of April 4, 1940. Jong Il died in 2011 and his true birth date was in 1941.

Both passports list the holders’ birthplaces as Sao Paulo, Brazil. Reuters has only seen photocopies of the passports so was unable to discern if they had been tampered with.

USS Pueblo POW’s Secret “Flipping the Bird” Gesture to North Korea Captors, 1968

U.S. POWs in North Korean repeatedly gave the middle finger to the photographer in every photo that was taken of them in 1968. When the Koreans realized the hand signal was always being used, they asked the prisoners what it meant. The POWs said it was good luck in Hawaiian.

The morning of January 23, 1968, North Korea attacked a US reconnaissance ship in international waters and captured its crew. They were held, severely tortured, and used for propaganda for 11 months. The Captain was repeatedly beaten, and threatened with execution. He repeated over and over “the Pueblo was in international waters.” He was driven at night to a building in Pyongyang where he was shown a human being hanging on a wall. The man had an eye dangling out of it’s socket, was bloodied and beaten savagely but, he was still alive. Captain Bucher was told “this is what we do to spies!” He repeated again “our ship was in international waters, I will not sign your god damned confession.” Finally, he was told that his crew would be executed one by one beginning with the youngest man if he did not confess. That crewman was brought in and a gun was placed to his head. The Captain finally relented.

In August 1968, eight sailors were photographed by the North Koreans where every sailor held up his middle finger, the meaning of which was not recognized by their captors. “We told them the finger was a Hawaiian good luck sign so they thought that was wonderful,” Lt. Schumacher remembered. “In two short movies shown in June, people on the street in London were shown giving the finger to the North Korean cameraman. It became obvious that these people did not know the meaning of this symbol of contempt, and that they were also unfamiliar with current western “culture,” or colloquialisms. In the coerced letters written to families, friends and political figures, and in subsequent “press” conferences the Pueblo men now attempted to use this knowledge as a means to discredit their captor’s propaganda efforts.”

This photo, distributed by North Korea’s central photo agency, shows the already hijacked USS Pueblo. According to the North Koreans, the US Navy ship was in North Korean waters. which the US and the crew of the Pueblo denied.

The first press conference to include Pueblo enlisted men was held August 13. It was for North Korean press only and was supposedly televised to the nation. An intentional press conference held September 12 was for the world press. It included a reporter named Lionel Martin from the New York Guardian. Both times innuendos and archaic Americanism language and idioms were inserted into the North Korean forced prepared statements to thwart their propaganda. The photography sessions were staged. The “Hawaiian Good Luck Sign” was exhibited by many crew members in defiance and contempt.

One of the photograph was published on October 18, 1968 in Time Magazine who explained the “Hawaiian Good Luck Sign” as coded “F*** You” message. When North Korea read the magazine and saw they had been made fools of, they severely beat and tortured the U.S. prisoners. “The duty officers were asking about the finger gesture, what did it mean? What did it really mean. We stuck to our cover story, it was the Hawaiian Good Luck sign. This was buying time and we knew it, but not much... (They) were trying to ferret out the truth. The Robot began asking questions. Bucher passed on to Charlie Law that they were on to us. We had been victorious, we had ruined their propaganda efforts. The only problem was that they figured it out before we left town. Bucher warned the crew to prepare for the worst. Our treatment and food continued its down hill slide. We knew that if we weren’t out before winter hit, many of us would not be around for spring. Along with the fear of torture and pain was a very real fear of death.

“The first shoe fell on December 7. Room 13, the guys in that famous room photo with four out of eight guys giving the finger, were summoned before the Robot. After being questioned they were returned to their room. Shortly after a guard came and called out Berens, Bland, Layton and Goldman. Bland was the first to return. The Bear had beaten him, his face was red and swollen, one eye was nearly shut. Jim Layton returned next. Berens returned next, he too had been savaged by the Bear. Goldman was the last to return. A veteran of the Korean War whose service record listed service on a minesweeper that had mined Wonsan harbor, received extra attention, he had been beaten by the Possum. His face was bleeding, his lip was split and his ear was badly torn. All was quiet until Saturday afternoon, the General called and all hands meeting. We had not been sincere, we would be punished. The gloves were off.”

“In June, we were taken to the Club for yet another film. Unlike the usual fare of feature films of the war movie, labor hero genre, we were shown two short subjects. One was a film about the DPRK soccer team's visit to the play-offs in London. The other was about a US service man’s body being returned to the UN side at Panmunjom by the DPRK. Two different subjects, but one common action united the two films. The film about the soccer team began with the North Korean team arriving in London and driving through the streets in a bus festooned with flags of the DPRK. As the bus drove down the street one proper English gentleman complete with derby and umbrella spotted the bus and flipped it off! The man must have been a Korean War vet and he was giving the bus the finger.

“Whoever was taking the pictures zoomed in on it. A murmur went through the crew; the KORCOMs didn’t know what the finger meant. This was further demonstrated in the second film in which a US Navy Officer flipped off the cameraman. They left it in. We now had a weapon! Back in our rooms we were elated, this was one more thing we could use to discredit the propaganda we were being forced to grind out. Several crew members expressed caution, but the general attitude was use it. We had been captured, but we never surrendered. Damn the Koreans, full fingers ahead. The finger became an integral part of our anti-propaganda campaign. Any time a camera appeared, so did the fingers. A concern grew among us that sooner or later the Koreans would notice this and ask questions. It was decided that if the question was raised, the answer was to be that the finger was a gesture known as the Hawaiian Good Luck sign, a variation of the Hang Loose gesture. In late August one of the duty officers asked about the finger and seemed to be accepting of the explanation, but most of us realized that our zeal to ruin their propaganda would come back to haunt us, eventually.”

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The Largest Car Theft in History: In the 1970s, North Korea Ordered 1,000 Volvos From Sweden and Has Yet to Pay It Off

In the 1970s, Sweden began to see North Korea as a lucrative market. Swedish companies like Volvo, ASEA, Kockums, Atlas Copco, and Alfa Laval wanted to export their products to the country and held an industrial exhibition in Pyongyang.

During that decade, North Korea imported various items, including about 1,000 Volvo automobiles that were never paid for, prompting Soviet diplomats to call it “largest car theft in the human history.” These Volvos were a common sighting in Pyongyang until the 2010s. They have since become increasingly difficult to maintain. North Korea still owes 2.2 billion Swedish kronor (234 million euros) to Sweden from these imports.

Out of all countries, the North Korean debt to Sweden is the largest, followed by Iraq whose debt is a billion kronor smaller.

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Pictures of North Korea Industries in 1972

In June 1972, The Toronto Star’s veteran Asia correspondent Mark Gayn was one of four reporters allowed into North Korea. The trip yielded four lengthy feature stories, published in The Star in July 1972, where Gayn detailed the country’s political landscape, then dominated by Kim Il Sung, and its people.

These photos are among the many Gayn took of his journeys through the country. These particular photos spotlight the various industries of North Korea. At the time, Gayn writes, his North Korean hosts, the Union of Journalists, were trying to convey that North Korea “is a sort of Asian Belgium, industrialized, sophisticated, well-off,” and that Kim Il Sung had abolished manual labor in the countryside.

Gayn, however, saw things differently. “If this is a modern industrial state,” he writes, “its way of life and its daily idiom are unfamiliar to a man from the West. It is also clear that Kim’s North Korea is a welfare state to make most Communist states seem bourgeois.”

Medical facility. June 1972, Pyongyang, North Korea.

Automated shoe factory. June 1972, Pyongyang, North Korea.

Textile mill. June 1972, Pyongyang, North Korea.

“Modern” industrial printing factory. June 1972, North Korea.

Large kindergarten for taking care of women laborers’ and office workers’ children. June 1972, North Korea.

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Amazing Photos From Vintage Brochures Show How North Korea Used to Tempt Tourists Back in the 1970s and 80s

North Korea is one of the most closely-guarded countries in the world - rarely are people allowed in, and photography is banned.

Vintage advertising shows how then-leader Kim Il-sung attempted to lure people to the country, with pictures of people relaxing on beaches, enjoying theme park rides and eating the local cuisine.

These snapshots were taken in the 1970s and '80s, before the collapse of the USSR. During this time, virtually no foreigners were allowed entry to North Korea except for communist allies.

This is how North Korea advertised itself to potential tourists back in the 1970s and 80s when only visitor from allied communist countries were allowed within its borders.

Among the many attractions potential tourists had waiting for them include volleyball, a favorite sport in North Korea, which is pictured being played here on Wonsan beach.

Gymnastics classes were another of the cultural offerings for potential communist visitors. Women are pictured taking part in a class on Songdowon beach here.

The beach in Wonsan is filled with tourists, most like from the USSR, in this 1980s snap that was included in a brochure given to prospective visitors.

This is the beach at Majon, in North Korea's second-largest city of Hamhung, photographed some time in the 1990s.

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Pictures of Korean War From the 1950s

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself.

After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III. Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives during the war. The Korean peninsula is still divided today.

Following World War II, the Korean peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel, with the creation of communist-backed North Korea and the anti-communist Republic of South Korea. On June 25, 1950, North invaded South, leading to the outbreak of the Korean War.

Kim Il-Sung ruled North Korea from its creation in 1948 until his death in 1994. Installed with the support of the Soviet Union, he led his country into the Korean War in an effort to unite the Korean peninsula under communist rule.

Rhee was elected the first president of South Korea in 1948 and led his nation during the Korean War. His authoritarian regime clamped down on all forms of dissent. Rhee was ultimately forced to resign and flee the country in 1960.

MacArthur was appointed commander-in-chief of U.N. forces at the outset of the Korean War. However, he openly disagreed with official U.S. policy, and in April 1951, President Truman removed him from command, igniting a storm of controversy.

At the start of the Korean War, the P-51 Mustang was the primary aircraft of the United Nations forces. Within a few years, the Mustang and other World War II-era propeller planes had been superseded by a new breed of jet fighters.

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20 Color Photographs of Korean War in the 1950s

The Korean War was a war between North Korea (with the support of China and the Soviet Union) and South Korea (with the support of the United Nations, principally from the United States). The war began on June 25, 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea.

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States liberated Korea from imperial Japanese colonial control on August 15, 1945. After the war had ended, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into two zones of occupation, the Soviets administered the northern half and the Americans administered the southern half. With the border set at the 38th parallel in 1948, two sovereign states were established as a result of geopolitical tensions of the Cold War (between the Soviet Union and the United States). A socialist state was established in the north under the communist leadership of Kim Il-sung and a capitalist state in the south under the anti-communist leadership of Syngman Rhee. Both governments of the two new Korean states claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither accepted the border as permanent.

The conflict escalated into warfare when North Korean military (Korean People’s Army, KPA) forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—crossed the border and advanced into South Korea on June 25, 1950. The United Nations Security Council authorized the formation of the United Nations Command and the dispatch of forces to Korea to repel what was recognized as a North Korean invasion. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel.

After the first two months of war, South Korean Army (ROKA) and the US forces rapidly dispatched to Korea were on the point of defeat. As a result, the ROKA and US troops retreated to a small area behind a defensive line known as the Pusan Perimeter. In September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Incheon, and cut off many KPA troops in South Korea. Those who escaped envelopment and capture were forced back north. UN forces invaded North Korea in October 1950 and moved rapidly towards the Yalu River—the border with China—but on October 19, 1950, Chinese forces of the People’s Volunteer Army (PVA) crossed the Yalu and entered the war.] The surprise Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces and Chinese forces were in South Korea by late December.

In these and subsequent battles, Seoul was captured four times, and communist forces were pushed back to positions around the 38th parallel, close to where the war started. After this the front stabilized and the last two years of fighting became a war of attrition, the war in the air, however, was never a stalemate. North Korea was subject to a massive US bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in air-to-air combat for the first time in history, and Soviet pilots covertly flew in defense of their communist allies.

The fighting ended on July 27, 1953 when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty was ever signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war, engaged in a frozen conflict.

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28 Color Photographs of Korean War in the 1950s

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War.

By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. After some early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted with nothing to show for them. Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III.

Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives during the war. The Korean peninsula is still divided today.

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30 Interesting Vintage Photos That Capture Everyday Life in North Korea in the 1980s

Hiroji Kubota is a renowned Japanese photographer, a member of Magnum Photos who has specialized in photographing the far east. Kubota  had the opportunity to visit and stay in North Korea between 1978 and 1992, 13 times, for a total of 9 months, traveling to all the provinces, covering all four seasons, all of which resulted in a great diversity of coverage.

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Amazing Vintage Photographs of North Korea in the Late of 1970s

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Rare Color Photographs Capture Daily Life in North Korea in the Late 1970s

North Korean propaganda is full of distortions, fake news, and ludicrous claims designed to make you hail the glory of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WKP) and the Kim dynasty – and curse its enemies.

But it also contains a great deal of factual material as well. The regime doesn’t have to lie about everything, and there are some facts that it is very proud of and would very much like the world to know about.

These interesting color photographs give us furtive glimpses of what North Korea looked like back in the late 1970s.

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