Kim family used Brazil passports to visit West

LONDON: 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 told Reuters.

While North Korea’s ruling family is known to have used travel documents obtained under false pretences, there are few specific examples.

“They used these Brazilian passports, which clearly show the photographs of Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Il, to attempt to obtain visas from foreign embassies,” one senior Western security source said. “This shows the desire for travel and points to the ruling family’s attempts to build a possible escape route.”

The North Korean embassy in Brazil declined to comment.

Brazil’s foreign ministry said it was investigating.

Four other senior Western European security sources confirmed that the two passports in the names of Josef Pwag and Ijong Tchoi were used to apply for visas in at least two countries.

A BRAZILIAN SOURCE SAID THE PASSPORTS IN QUESTION WERE LEGITIMATE DOCUMENTS WHEN SENT OUT AS BLANKS FOR CONSULATES TO ISSUE.

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 Jong Un visited Tokyo as a child using a Brazilian passport in 1991 — before the issue date on the two Brazilian passports.

The passport with 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 Jong Un that even his birth date is disputed. He would have been 12 to 14 years old when the Brazilian passport was issued.