[3] After his defection in 1982, he went into hiding for a number of years, before going public in support of Seong Hye-rim, his aunt and Kim's mistress or wife, and wrote a book about his experiences in exile, after which he was murdered by unknown assailants.
Yi went abroad to Moscow for a university education, and then defected to South Korea in 1982 while studying at a language school in Switzerland.
He first studied drama at Hanyang University, and married in 1988; however, in March 1993, a construction company he started went bankrupt, and he was jailed for 10 months on charges of embezzlement.
[5] In 1996, due to his ongoing financial difficulties, Yi made his identity as Kim Jong Il's nephew known publicly, selling the story of his aunt Song Hye-rim's exile in Moscow to South Korean newspapers, and then publishing a book about his experiences entitled Taedong River Royal Family.
[5] The publication of Yi's tell-all book and the defection of his mother in Switzerland the previous year may have served as additional factors in making him a target of the regime in the North.