Monique Macias is the daughter of Francisco Macias Nguema, the first president of Equatorial Guinea from 1968 until his overthrow and execution in 1979. She spent 15 years growing up in exile in North Korea after a deal her father struck with friendly Pyongyang officials shortly before his death to take and raise his children. Monique and her siblings spent their school days firing Kalashnikov rifles at the same elite military academy where future North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il studied. Macias -- who left North Korea in 1994 and spends most of her time with relatives in Spain -- has now published her memoirs to tell the story of her bizarre childhood among North Korea's elite. (10 PHOTOS)
Growing Up In North Korea
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Monique Macias (left) with an official from the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School after shooting practice near Pyongyang in 1985.
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Kim Sung Ae, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung's second wife, shares a toast with Macias on the girl's first visit to Pyongyang in 1978.
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Macias (6th from left) poses with her schoolmates at graduation from the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School's primary school in Pyongyang in 1981.
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Macias in front of a sign reading "Friendship" on the Pyongyang-Nampho highway near her Pyongyang school in 1982.
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Francisco (left), Monique Macias's older brother, poses at the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in Pyongyang in 1984.
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Monique (left) stands in front of the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School with her elder sister, Maribelle (center), and brother Francisco at school in 1989.
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Monique's brother, Francisco (back row, center), at a military-training exercise in Pyongyang in 1990.
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Monique on a balcony at the Dongmyong Hotel in Wonsan during a holiday in August 1989.
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Monique (second row, center) poses with university classmates in Pyongyang in 1990.
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Monique during an interview with Reuters in central Seoul on September 27, 2013.