A North Korean colonel who spent two decades going on European shopping sprees for his country's rulers said March 4 that Kim Il Sung lived in luxury while people struggled to survive in his impoverished communist nation.

North Korean Col. Kim Jong Ryul speaks at a news conference in Vienna on March 4. AP PHOTO

Kim Jong Ryul, who spent 16 years under cover in Austria, also described how the "great leader," and his son and successor, Kim Jong Il, spent millions pampering and protecting themselves with Western goods — everything from luxury cars, carpets and exotic foods, to monitors that can detect heartbeats of people hiding behind walls and gold-plated handguns.

The colonel's account — told in a new book, At the Dictator's Service, by Austrian journalists Ingrid Steiner-Gashi and Dardan Gashi — shows the deep divide between the lifestyles of the North Korean leadership and their citizens.

Kim Jong Ryul said the late dictator had dozens of sprawling villas — some of them built underground — filled with crystal chandeliers, silk wallpaper and costly furniture.

In some of the villas, Kim — who had studied mechanical engineering in the former German Democratic Republic — even developed special ventilation systems, which in the event of a nuclear attack, would continue to function and act as filters, the colonel said.

It was in these palatial homes that Kim Il Sung and his family would feast on an immense array of fine foods.

"He only ate foreign food," the colonel said. "In Vienna, there was a special attache, a friend of mine, who only procured special foreign food for the dictator."