PROFESSIONAL LUNCHEON
Yoji Gomi, Senior Staff Writer, Tokyo Shimbun
Author of "My Father, Kim Jong Il, and I: Kim Jong Nam's Exclusive Confession"

The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation

For journalists, getting reliable information out of North Korea is notoriously difficult. Getting a one-on-one interview with an insider with unique insight into the family that has run the country since it was created, the party, the politics and the people definitely counts as a scoop.

Yoji Gomi, a journalist with the Tokyo Shimbun, must thank the gods of journalism for the chance meeting in a Beijing airport with Kim Jong-Nam.

The oldest son of the recently departed Dear Leader, Kim Jong-nam was apparently being groomed to succeed Kim Jong-il as leader of the reclusive state until he was arrested in May 2001 trying to enter Japan on a forged Dominican Republic passport with two women and a boy aged 4. He told Japanese police that he wanted to visit Disneyland.

Furious at his son's indiscretion, Kim Jong-il banished him to Macau and turned to Kim Jong-un as his eventual successor.

After meeting Gomi in Beijing, the journalist interviewed the man who could have been ruling North Korea, in Macao and through more than 150 e-mails. The result is the timely release, on January 20, of "My Father, Kim Jong-Il, and I: Kim Jong-Nam's Exclusive Confession."

Gomi will comment on Kim Jong-Nam's opposition to the hereditary transition of power to his half-brother and his ambition to one day return to his homeland.

Menu:
Baked Golden Chicken, Steamed Rice and Green Vegetables, Seasonal Salad

Yoji Gomi, Author of "My Father, Kim Jong Il, and I: Kim Jong Nam's Exclusive Confession"