The speaker, in fact, is Kim Jong Il, the leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. Shin feared rightfully that nobody would believe this outlandish story, so he and Choi secretly taped Kim Jong Il. At first, the U.S. government was skeptical that the voice on the tapes could be Kim Jong Il’s. Psychological profilers puzzled over Kim Jong Il’s tendency to make self-deprecating remarks. After defecting to the United States, the couple, who had remarried in North Korea, settled in Los Angeles.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 27, 2016 10:01 UTC