Scans of what appear to be fraudulent Brazilian passports obtained by North Korea’s ruling family in the 1990’s first reported by Reuters in 2018 have resurfaced online via Twitter. At the time, a Brazilian security source told the news outlet that the documents “appeared to be genuine.”
The passports issued by the Brazilian embassy in Prague in 1996 featured a young Kim Jong-un as “Josef Pwag” and his father, Kim Jong-il, as “Ijong Tchoi.” Although not conclusive proof, Japanese media had previously claimed that Kim Jong-un and his brother used Brazilian passports in 1991 to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother of the North Korean leader, was also found with a false passport when attempting to enter Japan, specifically Tokyo Disneyland, in 2001. At the time, North Korea was suffering from international isolation and considerable internal hardship, so fraudulent documents were used to help gain entry to Western countries.
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Dr. John Nilsson-Wright, an expert in North Korean affairs at UK security think-tank Chatham House, said that the use of a false passport may indicate an “attempt by him and his son to think in terms of potentially an escape route out of North Korea — and that would be revealing and very surprising” considering these were issued just two years into the older Kim’s rule.
“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,” a senior Western security source told Reuters in 2018 on condition of anonymity.
“This shows the desire for travel and points to the ruling family’s attempts to build a possible escape route,” the security source added.
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