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

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 defector 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 out-of-wedlock romance before a 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," former
dancer Kim Yong-sun, 73, 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 by a Seoul newspaper.
The Dong-A Ilbo reported on Tuesday that Song was buried in the Troekurovskoe
ceremony on the outskirts of Moscow and ran photographs of her gravestone, which
show Song's name and the dates of her birth and death engraved, in Korean, on the
front and the name of her son, Kim Jong-nam, engraved on the rear.
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.
The report quoted cemetery staff as saying her son Jong-nam brought some North
Koreans to the cemetery in 2005 to erect the gravestone. To ensure it remains out
of public sight, the stone was recorded under an alias in the cemetery's
registry.
The discovery comes at a sensitive time in 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.
Former dancer 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 their illegitimate relationship, and Kim Jong-il was forced to
marry another woman, Kim Yong-suk, in 1974. From then on, Song is known to have
suffered depression and a series of nervous breakdowns and was 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 legendary and
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 on 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 on January 8 when his father reportedly sent a directive on his
designation to the Workers' Party leaders.
With Jong-un's rise, 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 last
year. She changed her name after her defection.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)