[imText1]Love affair is another way of reaching Kim Jong Il personally. His age now reached 63. He joined the “senior” group too. He must be taking the process of picking out a successor who would follow his destiny. However in reality, this process seems to take place very slowly.
The reason why Kim Jong Il has not been active in picking out the next leader of North Korea is mainly because of his obsession with holding power to himself, but it is also due to the complex family relations.
Kim Jong Il’s personal life is very strictly concealed. Considering the nature of the issues, there is no reliable evidence found. However, we cannot silence those who lived with him. When different testimonies accord one another, we could say they are reliable sources.
Kim Jong Il is well known for not accompanying his wife to public events. It was the same for Kim Il Sung and his wife, Kim Sung Ae. However for Kim Jong Il, it seems to have much to do with his complex family relations.
Kim Jong Il’s Official Wife is Kim Young Suk, Typist of the Central Party
Kim’s official wife is Kim Young Suk (age 58). Kim Young Suk met Kim Jong Il while she was working as a typist for the Safety Department of the Central Party in North Hamkyung province. The two got married in 1974. They gave a birth to a daughter named Sul Song, whose name is known to be given by Kim Il Sung. However, Kim Young Suk did not have any significance as a wife but only that they got married according to Kim Il Sung’s wish.
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In the book, “Wisteria House” written by Sung Hae Rang, Kim Jong Il’s sister in law who also served as Kim Jong Nam’s tutor, describes Kim Young Suk as, “she has no more significance than the fact that she is the legal wife and official one before his father (Kim Il Sung). Family tree does not include her and she does not even have People’s Certificate (similar to social security number). She is not found in any legal documents. There is no way to verify who is Kim Jong Il’s wife other than his own personal acknowledgement.”
Before Kim Jong Il married his official wife, he lived with a woman called Sung Hye Lim for a long period of time. Sung Hye Lim was a famous actress at the time who moved to the North with her parents during the Korean War. She was five years older than him. Kim Jong Il and Sung Hye Lim moved in together in 1969 to House #15 located in Jungsung-dong. Kim was 29 years old. His living with Sung was kept as a secret even to Kim Il Sung. In 1971, Sung gave birth to Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Il’s first son, at Bonghwa clinical center.
Koh Young Hee Played the Role of Kim Jong Il’s Official Wife
I was known that Sung Hye Lim suffered from extreme nervousness and mental weakness since the late 1970s, after she was told to leave Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Nam by Kim Jong Il’s sister, Kim Kyung Hee. She stayed in Switzerland and Russia for a long time for recuperation but she passed away in Moscow, in 2002 at the age of 63.
The person who lived with Kim Jong Il and played the role of the first lady is Koh Young Hee. Koh Young Hee was a daughter of Koh Tae Moon, a Korean descendant from Japan, born in 1952.
While she was active as one of the dancers in Mansudae Art Group in mid 1970s, she was noticed by Kim Jong Il and became official partner for his secret parties. Then she became his lover. Although she was only a mistress, she won Kim’s heart for the longest time. She passed away in Paris at the age of 52 during her cancer treatment.
Kim Jong Il’s Successors, Dispute on the Two Sons of Koh Young Hee
Kim Jong Il has two sons from Koh Young Hee; Jong Chul (age 24) and Jong Uen (age 21). Since last May it has been known that portraits of Koh were hanged in the military compounds and called Koh as “Revered Mother.” In South Korean many believe that the successor it likely to be Kim Jong Chul. However, Kim Jong Il never mentioned about his next successor.
Song Bong Sun, the former North Korean Investigation room of what is now National Intelligence Service writes, “Koh Young Hee is a good looking woman with a round face and Kim Jong Il is known to have liked this kind of looking women.”
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| Japanese movie star Yosinaka Sayuli |
Choi Eun Hee, who defected in 1978 also describes the woman whom Kim Jong Il introduced her as “my wife” was a good looking lady with a round face (assumed to be Sun Hye Lim). Kim Jong Il once said, “among the Japanese actresses, Sinaka Sayuli is the prettiest.” (Fujimoto Kenji, Kim Jong Il’s cook). Yosinaka Sayuri is a beautiful woman who has a round face.
Although some argue that Hong Il Chun, who graduated from Kim Il Sung University and is a senior member of the Supreme People’s Assembly, is the first woman of Kim Jong Il, such a claim has little credence for there is no one who supports this fact. There is a little possibility that she could have maintained the position of senior member of the Supreme People’s Assembly after divorcing Kim Jong Il taking into consideration the nature of the North Korean political system.
Apart from these three women, Kim Jong Il is known to have had multiple of love affairs. Referring to the comments of the returnees (from North Korea), Song Bong Sun said, “Apart from Kim Young Suk, Sung Hye Lim, and Koh Young Hee, (it is known that) he lived with Sohn Hee Lim, the sister of ambassador to Russia Sohn Sung Pil, Hong Young Hee, an actress, and Lee Hyung Heon, the wife of the ambassador to Tunisia for a short period of time.” Song also said Kim Jong Il is known for having had “contact” with dancers of Mansu Art Group, actresses, nurses, and typists in Kim Jong Il’s office.
Even Some Foreign Women in Pyongyang Parties
Lee Han Young, who was murdered for revealing personal life of Kim Jong Il, describes in his autobiography, “Kim Jong Il’s Royal Family,” that “the people who thought they have to make Kim Jong Il happy in every way possible brought girls from foreign countries because the parties were not fun only with Korean girls. The girls were from Thailand, Philippines, and even Arab countries.”
A Japanese monthly journal, 『Literary Years』 reported in its March 1992 edition about a Japanese woman who went to Pyongyang with a Thai woman to earn money and was involved in one of the Kim Jong Il’s parties and served alcohol.
“The party which started in the bright daylight, was solely for Kim Jong Il. The high class cadres, unexpectedly, sang “Goodbye REBAUL,” which was a military song of Japanese soldiers during the Pacific War. Kim Jong Il directed his own indoor music band and threw out bills of $100 to the foreign hostesses.” Monthly 『Literary Years』, March 1992
In the book, “Kim Jong Il’s Kingdom,” authored by Choi Eun Hee, a South Korean actress who escaped after abducted to North Korea, it is also reported that foreign women who got involved in Kim Jong Il’s parties cried to her saying, “Now that we have been involved in Kim Jong Il’s parties several times, they would not send us back home.”
Revealing about Kim Jong Il’s Personal Life, Imprisonment in Concentration Camp
Anything about Kim Jong Il’s personal life becomes a highly classified secret. Kim Jong Il’s group of bodyguards, entourages, and the people working in his residents do not have people’s identity certificate issued. They cannot enter the society freely and when they reveal parts of Kim Jong Il’s personal life, they are sent to concentration camps and in some cases secretly executed.
Some also argue the Dear Leader’s ability to lead the nation has little to do with his love affairs. They say criticizing personal relationships with women as morally wrong is not a rightful thing to do. Of course, we do not have to focus on morality and leadership in our discussion.
It is only that Kim Jong Il wrongdoings such as divorcing other couples to obtain somebody else’s wives, sending numerous actors and artists to concentration camps to conceal his relationship with Sung Hye Lim, and executing actress Woo In Hee in fear of his relationship with her being revealed must be criticized.
Woo In Hee was one of the top stars in North Korean movie industry during the 60s and 70s. She was married to filmmaker Yoo Ho Sun and had three sons. In the late 70s, she had a love affair with Kim Jong Il. However, later, she also falls in love with one Korean Japanese man. After the two had relationship, the man died in his car for having slept in his car with the heater on.
Many victimized to Keep the Secret
When the incident was revealed to the public, criticisms on Woo In Hee amounted. When Kim Jong Il heard that she was calling for the Dear Leader, he ordered for an immediate execution.
She was executed as soon as the sentence, “the people’s actress Woo In Hee has committed the crime of adultery thus in the name of the people, is sentenced to execution by a fire squad,” was read out, and she died while all the actors were watching her. Until the last moment she called out for Kim Jong Il, pleading to let her meet the Dear Leader. However, her plead was turned down. This incident is well known among the North Koreans.
Kim Jong Il’s love affairs extend beyond his social life. He used women for the expansion of his power, and killed many people to keep his personal life as secret. The murder of Lee Han Young was discovered to be an order from Kim Jong Il when the couple spies from North Korea, Choi Jung Nam and Kan Yeon Jung, were arrested.
For this reason, revealing Kim Jong Il’s love affairs is not an infringement of his personal life. He is the person who broke up other people’s families and caused sufferings of many North Korean people.
