The institute, founded in the 1970s to oversee the health of the North's founder, also commandeered exotic foodstuffs for Kim Jong Il that were supposed to have medicinal properties. These included blue-shark liver from Angola and a lion extract procured in Tanzania.
Admittedly, some of Kim's tastes might be considered unappetizing. He apparently relished some foods so fresh that they were still wriggling. His former sushi chef boasted that he was able to slice a fish, artfully sparing its vital organs, so that it would still be alive when served to Kim as sashimi.
"He was loud in his praises, saying it was extremely delicious," chef Fujimoto wrote.
South Korean actress Choi Eun Hee, who was abducted to North Korea and spent eight years there before escaping, was shocked when Kim served her a bottle of liquor that contained a snake "moving about and looking like it was belching," Choi wrote in a memoir.
Of course, most North Koreans have no idea what Kim is eating or how much he spends to obtain it. In a country where even a bowl of rice is considered a luxury, the relentless propaganda machine always refers to Kim as sharing the suffering of his people with a humble diet.
"That evening, potato dishes were prepared for his simple dinner," the official KCNA news agency reported in 2002 in a characteristically fawning account of a birthday meal Kim shared with soldiers. "In this way, Kim Jong Il spent his birthday with devotion to the country and his people."
On the other hand, consignments of live lobster and French wines were flown in at four stops during a train journey through Russia in 2001, according to a book published the next year by Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian official who accompanied Kim. The menu usually consisted of 15 to 20 dishes.
Pulikovsky emphasized, however, that Kim was not a glutton but a gourmet.
"His dining is very moderate and modest. He would take only a little, as if to taste it," wrote Pulikovsky, who apparently spent much of the journey discussing gastronomy with Kim as well as procuring Russian delicacies. "You get the feeling that he knows what's what in culinary matters."
Kim's sushi chef also was impressed with his boss' knowledge of cuisine.
"You should enjoy a meal first with your eyes, second with your nose and third with your tongue," Kim liked to say, according to Fujimoto's book, "I Was Kim Jong Il's Cook."
