Regards, Ivan
Posted on 08/28/2004 3:38:05 AM PDT by MadIvan
THE wife of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, and the mother of his likely heir is reported to have died of cancer, raising questions about the effect of her death on the world’s last hardline communist state.
Koh Young Hee, one of the three wives of Mr Kim and the mother of two of his three known sons, died in hospital in Paris, according to South Korean newspapers and television. Citing unnamed North Korean sources in China, the reports said that her elaborate coffin was flown back to Pyongyang in a chartered aircraft.
South Korean officials said yesterday that they were trying to confirm reports of the death, which focuses renewed attention on the inner workings of the world’s only hereditary communist dynasty. Although Ms Koh never appeared in public, those who knew the 54-year-old say that she was adored by the so-called “Dear Leader” and exerted a powerful influence over him.
“The psychological damage to Kim Jong Il will be enormous if the rumour is true,” Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese chef who spent 13 years as Mr Kim’s personal cook, said. “But he is not so weak as to be laid low by her death.”
Almost everything about Kim Jong Il, from his birthplace to his exact height, is wreathed in mystery and misinformation. However, he is known to have had close and lasting relationships with three women.
His official wife, handpicked by his father, Kim Il Sung, was a general’s daughter named Kim Young Sook, who is in her early 60s. The mother of his eldest son was Sung Hae Rim, a North Korean film star, who died in Moscow in 2002.
According to the sushi chef, who got to know Ms Koh well in Pyongyang before returning to Japan, she was born on June 16, 1950, to Korean parents in the Japanese city of Osaka. Her father was a wrestler and in the 1960s, like many Koreans in Japan at the time, her family sailed to North Korea to begin a new life. Ms Koh became a dancer in the famous Mansudae Arts Troupe in 1972 and it was during a performance that she caught the eye of the young Kim Jong Il.
“He loved her so much,” Mr Fujimoto said. “She was not a mistress. I believe they were married and she was an official wife. I hope that it is not true that she’s dead — I cried out loud when I saw it in the newspaper.”
Although the 62-year-old Mr Kim shows no obvious signs of ill-health, foreign intelligence organisations devote intense scrutiny to the question of who will succeed him. His oldest son is Kim Jong Nam, 33, but he is thought to have disqualified himself after an humiliating incident in 2001. After making an incognito visit to Tokyo Disneyland, he was arrested by Japanese authorities for using a false Dominican Republic passport.
Ms Koh’s two sons, Jong Chul and Jong Woong, 23 and 19 respectively, have received little public exposure.
In recent years state media had referred to her as “respected mother”, suggesting that one of her boys was being groomed for the leadership.
According to Mr Fujimoto’s book, I Was Kim Jong Il’s Chef, the “Dear Leader” regarded the elder Jong Chul as “like a girl” and favours Jong Woon. Nevertheless, her death may revive the hopes of the Mickey Mouse-loving Kim Jong Nam, and complicate the succession.
Unconfirmed reports late last year suggested that Ms Koh had been seriously injured in a car accident and it is known that she had breast cancer in the mid-1990s.
“She was eating her favourite Chinese-style noodle and suddenly her chopsticks fell through her right fingers and she couldn’t pick them up,” Mr Fujimoto recalled. “Doctors who were immediately called in by Kim Jong Il thought her nerve system was somehow affected. She flew to Paris with the doctors on Kim Jong Il’s private jet on the same day and she was in hospital for 15 days.”
He added: “Since she left hospital, she stopped turning up with Kim Jong Il to support their two sons at their basketball games. Her midnight snacks with Kim Jong Il were reduced to just once a week, and I didn’t see her riding her favourite horse.
“If it is true (that she is dead), I think it is very likely that North Korea will cover it up out of fear of the enormous impact on the army. The army is the backbone of the country. She used to boost the morale of the soldiers with Kim Jong Il and she was loved by them, even though not many common people can know of her.”
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
I thought she died 2 weeks ago?
Regards, Ivan
LOL.
Y-a-w-n. Kimmy Jongy Mentally-Il.
LOL! A great one-liner to start my day!
Possibly . . . . gay? Hmmm.
It's taking the media a while to report this.
.....pong
Grand Ayatolla Sistani, too.
Hope it was painful.
(Bobby Lee - Mad TV)
What's left to damage? That little wart's nuttier than a fruit cake.
What a freak show. North Korea is like a bad cartoon.
Bump.
No. That was when he issued the orders that she would die a tragic death.
But, but, but... Question for Michael Moron: They have free medical care in North Korea, just like in Cuba, so why did she have to go to Paris for treatment?
I'm not sure how one could differentiate it from his 'normal' demeanor.
Disneyland again. Well, there goes the revolution.
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