This is one of the strangest stories to come out of Vienna since Orson Welles took a wrong turn in its sewers. It's in a way a cold war left-over.

For 20 years the North Korean colonel Kim Jong Ryul rubbed shoulders with the wealthy shoppers of Vienna. His story, just told in a new book, "In the Dictator's Service," describes how he was sent on shopping sprees by his boss, North Korea's late ruler Kim Il Sung.

He tells how he spent millions on luxuries like fast cars, thick carpets and all the exotic foods to be found in that large delicatessen which is Vienna's first district - luxuries only one North Korean could afford.

I can imagine the pastry chefs at Demel's carefully creating one of their marzipan statues - a life-like likeness of the "great leader," although I don't recall seeing it in the store window.

The story rings true because the Austrian capital is a place where one can buy most things without too many questions asked. Items, like a gold-plated gun - which the colonel claims he purchased for his sponsor in chief.

Blockbuster potential

So why are we hearing this story so many years after the death of Kim Il Sung? Well, the colonel has a conscience. Appalled by the appetite of his boss and its contrast with the abject poverty in which most North Koreans live, he decided to retire from the post of dictator's chief purchasing officer.

In 1994 he faked his death, went undercover in Austria and waited for the regime to fall. It didn't. Kim Il Sung died in 1994 and his son replaced him and, presumably, someone else picked up the shopping duties.

But the colonel said he wanted to come clean about the regime's excess so that he could die with a clear conscience.

The story has obvious potential for the big screen. I fantasize about a blockbuster in which The Third Man meets Sound of Music meets Quantum of Solace. Bond has to be in this. Instead of Captain von Trapp fleeing the Nazis across the Alps, Colonel Kim is chased through the sewers by the dictator's evil agents. 007 will provide the rescue and the romantic element. I see a beauty disguised as a nun singing "how do you solve a problem like Korea."

Ok, there are plagiarism and plot issues but you must admit the potential. Does anyone have Kathryn Bigelow's number?

Author: Kerry Skyring

Editor: Neil King