Report: Wedding Bells for Kim Jong Il

It was reported that North Korean National Defense Committee Chairman Kim Jong Il married his former secretary Kim Ok, 42. According to this report, Kim Ok becomes his fourth wife after Sung Hye Rim (who died in 2002), Kim Yong Suk (who is assumed to be alive), and Ko Young Hee (who died in 2004).

However, some point out that Kim Ok is not the fourth, but fifth wife because Kim Jong Il’s marriage with Hong Il Chon in 1966 isn’t counted.

In regard to this, one source said yesterday, “Since 2004 when Ko Young Hee died, Kim Jong Il has lived together with his secretary Kim Ok, and Kim Ok has practically assumed a role as the first lady.” It is also reported that there are no offspring between two.

Kim Ok, who was born in 1964 and majored in piano at the Pyongyang Music and Dancing College, worked as Kim Jong Il’s secretary from the early 1980s until Ko Young Hee died.

The duty of secretary post is to take care of the health condition of executive members above the level of candidate members of political bureaus in the North Korea’s Workers’ Party. Each executive is usually assigned one such secretary. Kim Jong Il has several and Kim Ok was the secretary who dealt with administrative affairs instead of health conditions.

During Kim Jong Il’s visit to China in this January, Kim Ok accompanied Kim Jong Il as a director of the National Defense Committee and was welcomed by Hu Jintao, president of the People’s Republic of China, as a wife of Kim Jong Il. About Kim Ok, a source from China said, “Kim Ok is 160 centimeters in stature and looks intelligent. She was always with Kim Jong Il during the visit except during official meetings and press photo sessions.”

In addition to this, in October 2000 when Cho Myong Rok, Chairman of North Korea’s Defense Commission, visited the U.S. as a special envoy of Kim Jong Il, Kim Ok was there as a member of the suite. At that time, Kim used the assumed name, ‘Kim Seon Ok,’ and attended meetings with then U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen, and then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

However, in regard to this report on Kim’s fourth marriage, a South Korean government high-ranking official said, “The government obtained no information about this.”

Some now predict that this marriage might influence Kim’s succession plan. In fact, Kim Jong Il ordered not to mention the succession plan to his aides such as Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and Park Jae Gyong, vice director of the department for propaganda and the general political bureau of the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, early this year, and said, “We will be a laughingstock of the international community if rule is inherited through three generations.”

taewon_ha@donga.com