Shadowy

He sat in a shadowy corner.

He was a shadowy man who rarely spoke.

By 1980, South Korea had overtaken its northern neighbour, and was well on its way to being one of the Asian tigers – high-performing economies, with democratic movements ultimately winning power in the 1990s. The withdrawal of most Soviet aid in 1991, with the fall of the Soviet empire, pushed North Korea further down. Kim Il-sung had held a genuine place on North Korean people's affections. His son was regarded as a shadowy playboy, with rumours circulating over the years that he imported Russian and Chinese prostitutes, and lived a life of profligacy and excess.

But the most frequent guests were as New York magazine put it, “Arab princes, Third World officials, and shadowy European and American businessmen.