‘NK Leader’s Younger Sister in Critical Condition’

Kim Kyong Hui, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and wife of powerful Workers` Party member Chang Sung Taek, is said to be in critical condition or almost in a coma due to complications associated with alcohol use disorders.

French neurosurgeon Francois-Xavier Roux, 65, who was recruited by the North Korean leader’s eldest son Kim Jong Nam, is said to have treated Kim Kyong Hui, 63.

A Korean-Japanese businessman who can freely enter Pyongyang via Beijing said yesterday that her long addiction to alcohol caused severe brain damage.

Despite risk of exposure, Kim Jong Nam brought Roux from France to Pyongyang last year as he is known to be close with his aunt.

In Beijing Capital International Airport Oct. 24 last year, Roux admitted that he was going to Pyongyang but not to treat Kim Jong Il. The French newspaper Le Figaro quoted him as saying Dec. 11 that Kim suffered a stroke but did not undergo an operation.

The French neurosurgeon denied saying this two days later, however.

The businessman said he learned about this after hearing that Kim Jong Il drank strong alcohol with Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party’s international liaison department, and asked people about whom Roux treated.

“When Roux visited North Korea, rumors about Kim Jong Il’s health spread,” the businessman said, “The North neither confirmed nor denied this apparently on purpose to divert world attention from his sister’s critical condition.”

Another source in Beijing said, “When word spread about Kim’s health last year, Kim Kyong Hui’s condition got serious in August and December.”

bonhong@donga.com