Kim Jong Il

[123everton]

is it true that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il kidnapped a film director to mak a Godzilla movie and an 11 year old Japanese girl in order to help him learn Japanese?
Or is it just an urban myth?

[jno]

this seems fairly factual and mentions neither of those cases

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_abdu ctions_of_Japanese

Rationally (if that's a word to apply to Kim) you'd choose an adult as a language tutor, wouldn't you?

[jno]

here's a story about a South Korean director and actress

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/ 2821221.stm

[123everton]

To be fair the 11 year old thing was just some loony on Youtube, given Korea's history with Japan I would've thought throughout the whole nation there would be someone who spoke Japanese and even so I'm sure China would loan them somebody.
But the film director thing I've heard a few times, I find it all hard to believe.

[jno]

well, those stories do suggest that Japanese (adults) were kidnapped to provide language teaching, and a film director was kidnapped. I guess these are the type of stories that get embroidered each time they're told.

[123everton]

So it was'nt Godzilla he wanted then.

[jno]

the concept of Godzilla stomping Tokyo may well have appealed to him...