Kim Jong Il’s search for salad dressing

Once weighing nearly 90 kg, the 5 ft 2 Kim Jong Il has had to count the calories since suffering a stroke in 2008.

Kim Jong Il's search for salad dressing

Once weighing nearly 90 kg, the 5 ft 2 Kim Jong Il has had to count the calories since suffering a stroke in 2008.u00a0So perhaps it was no surprise that he stepped away from a tour of China's top factories and solar panel plants earlier this week to try and find some salad dressing at a local supermarket. The 69-year-old leader of North Korea slipped out of his suite at the Yangzhou State Guest House on Monday afternoon and strolled for five minutes to the Suguo supermarket. Kim, who is a known gourmet, reportedly then accosted one sales clerk and asked "Where can I find oil for a salad?"

Getting rid of the junk: Kim Jong II inspects a radish while he
searches for salad dressing.

Good olive oil is, of course, hard to come by in North Korea, where the World Food Programme said in March there were more than six million people on the brink of starvation and requiring urgent food aid. The WFP estimates that some 4,75,000 tons of food are needed, and Kim was thought to be meeting Hu Jintao, the president of China, to discuss some of the problems yesterday, as well as a resumption of talks over North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

Whet his appetite
Kim's appetite, meanwhile, has been the subject of several legends, including that he likes to have his sashimi carved from a live fish and that he hates anchovies on his pizza. According to one of his chefs, Kim sends trusted couriers to fetch him back Danish bacon, Iranian caviar and Thai mangoes. A nephew of his first wife, meanwhile, relates that the Dear Leader likes to have his rice cooked over wood that has been cut down from Mount Paektu, Korea's sacred mountain. There is even an institute in Pyongyang devoted to making sure Kim eats only the healthiest produce. But, while the North Korean leader paid special attention to the rice and oil in the supermarket, he came away empty-handed. He went on to board his special train before heading to Nanjing and then to Beijing.

Did you know?
South Koreans ridiculed Kim Jong Il by calling him 'the only fat Prince of Pyongyang'