(LEAD) (Yonhap Interview) Moscow grave of Kim Jong-il's first wife evokes tale of tragic romance

(ATTN: FIXES typo in para 5, ADDS minor edits)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, July 28 (Yonhap) -- A slim girl with a baby face whose smile gave her
dimples and crinkled the corners of her eyes -- this is how Kim Yong-sun
remembers her old friend, who fell in love with North Korea's crown prince and
later died heart-broken in Moscow.

Song Hye-rim, the first wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, was a talented
movie actress with a warm, feminine disposition, says her friend who knew her
for more than 20 years. These qualities won the heart of then heir apparent Kim
and sent her spinning into an extramarital romance before her fall into lonely
exile in Russia.
"She was cute with a baby face. But not too pretty, because her jaw bordered on
square and her face was not oval. She was good-natured, a very kind girl," Kim
Yong-sun, 73, formerly an elite North Korean dancer who defected to South Korea
in 2001, recounted in a telephone interview.
The story of Song's unfortunate life has struck a chord with outside watchers,
though the subject remains strictly off-limits in North Korea. It is a tale that
again drew public attention here after the location of her gravestone was
discovered for the first time.
On Tuesday, Song's body was found to have been buried at the Troekurovskoe
cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow. Her name and dates of birth and death are
inscribed on the front of her tombstone, and the name of her son, Kim Jong-nam,
is listed on the rear as the stone's guardian.
Located just 10 meters away from the graves of Josef Stalin's son and wife,
Song's tomb is left virtually unattended and surrounded by overgrown weeds.
It was long suspected that Song could have been buried somewhere in Moscow, where
she died in 2002, but her grave could never be located. To ensure it remained out
of public sight, the stone was recorded under an alias in the cemetery's
registry.
The discovery comes at a sensitive time for North Korea's oligarchic power
structure. Song's son increasingly appears marginalized as his father is believed
to be grooming his third and youngest son, Jong-un, as his successor.
Song, born into an aristocratic family in southern South Korea in 1937, moved to
North Korea with her mother during the Korean War. She married a man named Ri
Pyong in 1955 and gave birth to a daughter, Ok-dol, while her career bloomed with
heroine roles in such movies as "In the Village of the Demarcation Line."
But her life took a sudden twist in the late 1960s, when Kim Jong-il, a big fan
of movies, started visiting shooting locations and she caught his eye. Kim, six
years younger, reportedly convinced her to leave her husband and move in with him
in 1969.
Kim Yong-sun, who went to the same high school and university with Song, recalls
the last day she saw her. Shortly before she moved into the exclusive No. 5
House, a cryptic North Korean reference to the household of Kim Jong-il's
immediate family, Song visited her friend's apartment to bid her last farewell.
"I asked her, 'What about your husband Ri Pyong?' She didn't answer," Kim said.
"She just said, 'I may never see you again.' I understood. How would that be
possible, with her going to the No. 5 House?"
Song gave birth to Jong-nam in 1971, but just years later, her life began to
unravel. Kim Jong-il's father and the nation's leader at that time, Kim Il-sung,
never approved of their relationship, and Kim Jong-il was forced to marry another
woman, Kim Yong-suk, in 1974. From then on, Song suffered from depression and a
series of nervous breakdowns, and was then sent to Moscow. She died there alone
in May 2002, at age 65.
Her fate would go on to shake the lives of her friends and relatives. Kim
Yong-sun, an elite dancer and choreographer who trained under the legendary,
world-renowned North Korean dancer Choe Sung-hui, was sent to the Yodok political
prisoners' camp as North Korea sought to obliterate the heir's past by weeding
out those who knew of his relationship with Song.
At the notorious camp, her parents died of malnutrition, and her nine-year-old
son died after slipping into a river on his way to the prison school, she said.
Nine years later, in 1979, she and her three remaining children were released.
She defected to South Korea with one son in 2001. Her other children remain in
North Korea.
Kim said she didn't know the reasons for her imprisonment until a security agent
visited her years after her release.
"The security agent came to me and said, 'Song Hye-rim is neither (Kim Jong-il's)
wife nor does she have a son. They are all groundless rumors. If you make mention
this, you won't be forgiven,'" she said.
Kim Jong-nam, 38, is believed to have fallen from his father's favor after he was
caught trying to enter Japan with a fake passport in 2001 to visit Tokyo's
Disneyland with his relatives.
His half-brothers, Jong-chol and Jong-nam, were born to Ko Yong-hui, a
Japanese-born dancer who died of breast cancer in 2004. Kim Jong-il reportedly
loved her deeply. Jong-un, 26, is believed to have been tapped as the heir on his
birthday, January 8, when his father reportedly sent a directive on his
designation to the Workers' Party leaders.
With the rise of Jong-un, the memory of Song will further sink into oblivion in
North Korea, Kim said.
"In principle, the guardian of her grave should be Kim Jong-il, not her son, but
he turned his back on her," she added quietly.
"Who will visit her grave if Ko Yong-hui's son succeeds him? It's obvious that
few will dare."
Kim Yong-sun's biography, "I Was Song Hye-rim's Friend," was published in South
Korea last year. She changed her name after her defection.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)