Hwang Jang Yop, North Korea's top propagandist, confidant of the late leader Kim Il Sung and mentor to his son Kim Jong Il, fled to South Korea in February 1997. He is by far the most senior defector the North has ever lost. Hwang, 75, presented an intelligence bonanza for the South and a huge embarrassment for Pyongyang. He met last week at a safe house in Seoul with Tokyo correspondent Donald Macintyre and Seoul reporter Stella Kim for his first-ever interview with the Western media. Excerpts:

On why he defected:
If Kim Jong Il had not been killing massive numbers of people through starvation and harboring the desire for another war, I would not have defected. One has to judge a person by what he has done, and so far Kim has been starving his people to death. He is also ruining all that his father built, such as the economy. I came to South Korea to say that North Koreans are dying of starvation in massive numbers. Secondly, I had to let the world know that Kim is intent on launching another war against the South.

On the response to his message:
At first, South Koreans did not seem to believe me. But I feel that they believe me more and more as time goes by. North Korea is a completely closed society, so nobody can really know what goes on inside. The South Koreans don't know, and neither do the Chinese. The Americans know the least. I feel that the South Korean authorities are not telling all that they know to average citizens. I have talked about North Korea's food problems many times. But the authorities would wait for some confirmation before releasing the information to the public. I also talked at length about how dictatorial and oppressive Kim Jong Il is, but that has not been publicized enough.

On Kim Jong Il's leadership style:
He prefers to rely on private and secret means, using his closest aides rather than institutions and open, public channels. He likes using terror. It was useless to hold meetings because he would not listen to anyone. His father was different--Kim Il Sung was a good listener. Kim Jong Il mostly works during the night. He reads all sorts of reports and policy suggestions submitted by the party, military, foreign ministry, security apparatus and the rest of the government. He also keeps up with the world's bestsellers. He has people summarize them because he is short of time. For example, he read books on the economy by Paul Kennedy and [U.S. Labor Secretary] Robert Reich. His favorite books are novels. He pays particular attention to anything written about himself.

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