Kim Jong-il Through His Private Life

Who will be the heir to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il?

Kim Jong-il is married to his wife Kim Young-sook as well as having eight other mistresses: Hong Il-cheon, Seong Hye-rim, Koh Young-hee, Sohn Hui-rim, Hong Young-hee, Chung Hye-soon, and Yi Hyung-yeon, and has three sons and five daughters altogether.

Among them, Kim Jung-nam, his 34-year-old son from Seong Hye-rim, the former actress for the people, Kim Jung-chul, his 25-year-old son, and Kim Jung-woon, his 21-year-old son (both from Koh Young-hee, the former Japanese-Korean dancer) are strong candidates for the heir. Kim Jung-nam has an abundance of international experiences and is known to have accompanied Kim Jong-il on his visit to Russia and China. However, after the death of his mother Seong and her family fleeing to the western world, his position is narrowing. On the other hand, it was known that the North Korean authorities support Kim Jung-chul, who is currently studying in Berne, Switzerland, and Kim Jung-woon, who resembles Kim Jong-il in appearance and character.

The author of the book, “Kim Jong-il Through His Private Life” emphasizes, “In order to understand the inner structure of a society such as North Korea, the private life of the top leader is as important as the leader’s public life.” According to the Juche ideology of North Korea, the top leader, the Communist party, and the public will form a trinity, while the leader being the core of the organism and playing a critical role in the system. The author analyzes the character of Kim Jong-il from his birth to his childhood through his relationships with women and children, from daily lives and health to his hobbies including horse riding, hunting, and movies.

Kim Jong-il is an “owl” type person who gets up at noon, works from 4 p.m. until midnight and goes to sleep at 3 or 4 a.m. the next day. He rejects anybody who is second to him and reviews and signs all the papers handed in from different departments of the Cabinet by himself, which amount to approximately 500 pages per day.

Kim’s biological mother passed away when he was seven, and he went through the power struggle as his father Kim Il-sung brutally executed anti-Communists. These experiences affected Kim Jong-il to a great degree. The lack of motherly love influenced him to yearn for older women, and he lived with Seong Hye-rim who is five years older than he is, and even abducted Choi Eun-hee, who is ten years older.

“Kim Jong-il Royal Family” is a memoir written by the late Yi Han-young--with a real name, Yi Il-nam--a nephew of Seong Hye-rim. The book reveals Kim’s private life where Kim Jung-nam is happily given a present worth one million dollars for his birthday and where he picks “pleasure birds” from the most beautiful virgins. Lee defected to Korea during his study in Moscow in 1982 and graduated from Hanyang University. Soon he worked in the construction business but did not adapt himself to the capitalist Korea. Within six months after he confessed his stories to the press, he died from a gunshot by an unknown person in February 1997.

Lee says in his book regarding the life that he lived in both Koreas as follows.

“In North Korea, only Kim Jong-il and Kim Jung-nam play leading roles. The party’s executive members play supporting roles, and the people play only minor roles. Anyone can play a leading role with a certain income in South Korea. However, I also failed to keep my leading position in South Korea because I was idle and short of effort in self-management as a leading actor.”

Seung-Hoon Cheon raphy@donga.com