Free Republic

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...

A Mystery About a Mistress in North Korea By JAMES BROOKE Published: August 27, 2004 EOUL, South Korea, Aug. 26 - South Korean government officials are struggling to confirm persistent reports from North Korea of the recent death of its leader Kim Jong Il's favorite mistress, a former dancer who was elevated in the Communist state's pantheon to the status of "respected mother." The woman, Koh Young Hee, a Japanese-born Korean dancer, was treated in Paris last spring for advanced cancer. Over the summer, Ms. Koh, the 51-year-old mother of two of Mr. Kim's sons, was flown back to the...