Kim Jong Il's former sushi chef returns from North Korea

TOKYO, April 25 (UPI) -- Kenji Fujimoto, the former sushi chef to Kim Jong Il, returned from a rare trip to North Korea where he met with current leader Kim Jong Un.

Fujimoto, who uses a pseudonym, spent 13 years in North Korea before he escaped in 2001.

The Japanese chef, now in his late sixties, said he held a meeting with Kim, the Sankei Shimbun reported.

Meeting with reporters at an airport in Beijing, when probed about the trip and Kim, he said it was only "natural" he met with the young leader.

Fujimoto has a long history with the Kim family that began in 1982, when he replied to an advertisement about a chef position in North Korea, The Washington Post reported in January.

The chef became a Kim companion – a teenage Kim once borrowed his Whitney Houston CD, according to his account.

Fujimoto, however, did not go into the details of his discussions with Kim, who has purged more than 100 officials and executed his uncle-in-law Jang Sung Taek not long after assuming power.

NHK reported Fujimoto was visiting North Korea in time for the commemoration of the "Day of the Sun," April 15, which is founder Kim Il Sung's birthday.

Fujimoto stayed in North Korea from April 12-23.

The chef also made an emotional trip to North Korea in July and August 2012, his first visit in 11 years.

During the 2012 meeting with the North Korean leader, he told Kim "I, Fujimoto the betrayer, have now come back."

Kim reportedly patted him on the shoulder and consoled him.

Fujimoto has become something of a North Korea expert in Japan because so few people have actually come into direct contact with the ruler.

Kim has yet to meet with state leaders from allies China and Russia, and he has never left the country since inheriting his position from his father.