Anna Fifield is the Financial Times’ correspondent in Seoul. She is in North Korea for two weeks and is writing an online journal available only on FT.com about her visit to and life in the isolated hermit state. This is the third entry of her online journal. Go to www.ft.com/pyongyangdiary for future entries.

Last night I spent two hours in the company of Kim Jong-il. Unfortunately this did not involve a world-first interview with North Korea’s Dear Leader, but the evening will stick in my mind all the same.