The grave of the late Sung Hye Rim, located in an unassuming suburb of Moscow, has been revealed for the first time by South Korean daily newspaper the Dong-A Ilbo, more than seven years after her death.
Sung was the first mistress of Kim Jong Il, and the mother of his eldest son Jong Nam. Prior to meeting Kim she was a beloved actress in North Korean cinema.
The Dong-A Ilbo apparently discovered the location of the grave, a public cemetery in the west of Moscow. According to the report, the gravestone was set in its current form in 2005. In photos released on the 28th, you can clearly see words inscribed in Korean, “The grave of Sung Hye Rim (1937. 1. 24.-2002. 5. 18),” on the front, and, “Owner of the grave: Kim Jong Nam,” on the back.
She was originally the wife of Lee Pyong, a researcher at Kim Il Sung University whose father was Lee Ki Young, a famous novelist during the late Japanese colonial period who entered North Korea after the liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945. As a result primarily of her being married, Kim Jong Il tried to hide his relationship with her from his father for some time.
Immediately after her death in 2002, a Russian name was reportedly carved on the gravestone, for the simple reason that Kim Jong Il has always kept the fact that he lived with a married actress top secret, and has gone to great lengths to ensure it. Indeed, those in the arts and cultural fields who knew about it at the time were sent to political prison camps. For example, Kim Young Soon, who now lives in Seoul but learned ballet with Sung as a child, was sent to the Yoduk Camp for eight years simply because she knew Sung.
Therefore, it was natural for the North Korean embassy in Moscow to disguise the grave as someone else’s.
So how come the epitaph now shows “The grave of Sung Hye Rim”? The letter on the back of the gravestone may hint at the answer; Kim Jong Nam probably changed his mother’s grave in 2005, and had the truth inscribed on it.
Sung Hye Rim was an unfortunate woman, loved as a famous actress by the North Korean people but forced into the shadows, a hidden mistress of Kim Jong Il. She lived and died in secret. However, now, after a number of years, her grave has suddenly shown up in a South Korean newspaper. Now, North Korean people will gradually come to know of her hidden, tragic life, and through it a small part of Kim Jong Il’s own morally bankrupt past and present.
He is always the one who ought to fear the truth the most.
As the late South Korean human rights lawyer Cho Young Rae said, “The truth should not be trapped forever.”
