Kim Song-ae

First Lady of North KoreaIn role
17 December 1963 – 15 August 1974Supreme LeaderKim Il SungPreceded byPosition establishedSucceeded byPosition abolished until 2018Chair of the Central Committee of the Korean Democratic Women's LeagueIn office
1993 – 25 April 1998Supreme LeaderKim Jong IlPreceded byVacantSucceeded byCheon Yeon-okIn office
1971–1976Supreme LeaderKim Il SungPreceded byKim Ok-sunSucceeded byVacant Personal detailsPronunciationHuoBorn(1924-12-29)29 December 1924
Kangso-guyok, Heian'nan-dō (South Pyongan Province), Korea, Empire of JapanDiedSeptember 2014 (aged 89)
Kanggye, Chagang, North KoreaPolitical partyWorkers' Party of KoreaSpouse ChildrenKim Kyong-jin (son)
Kim Pyong-il (son)
Kim Yong-il (son)^[a]Korean nameChosŏn'gŭlHanchaRevised RomanizationGim Seong-aeMcCune–ReischauerKim Sŏng-ae

Kim Song-ae (Korean: 김성애; born Kim Song-pal (김성팔); 29 December 1924 – September 2014)^[2] was a North Korean politician who served as the first lady of North Korea during the time that the position existed, from 1963 to 1974. She was the second wife of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung from their marriage in 1952 until his death in 1994.

Biography

Born Kim Song-pal on 29 December 1924 in South Pyongan Province,^[3][4] Kim Song-ae began her career as a clerical worker in the Ministry of National Defense where she first met Kim Il Sung in 1948. She was hired to work in his residence as an assistant to Kim Jong-suk, Kim Il Sung's first wife. After Kim Jong-suk's 1949 death, Kim Song-ae began managing Kim Il Sung's household and domestic life. During the Korean War she looked after Kim Jong Il and Kim Kyong-hui.^[3] She married Kim Il Sung in 1952, although due to the war no formal ceremony was held. She gave birth to three sons: Kim Kyong-jin (b. 1952), Kim Pyong-il (b. 1954), and Kim Yong-il (b. 1955).^[5]

Kim Song-ae later rose in political power. From the mid 1960s until the mid 1970s, Kim Song-ae allegedly held a significant amount of political influence in North Korea.^[6] As her tenure of political significance occurred in about the same period as that of Jiang Qing in China during the Culture Revolution, Jang Jin-sung referred to Kim Song-ae as the "North Korean mirror image of Jiang Qing".^[6]

In 1965, she became vice-chairwoman of the Central Committee of the Korean Democratic Women's League (KDWL), and in 1971, she rose to be chairwoman.^[7] In December 1972, she became a representative of the Supreme People's Assembly.^[7]

According to Jang Jin-sung, Kim Song-ae had the ambition to place her son, Kim Pyong-il in the position of successor to her spouse Kim Il Sung, rather than his son from his first marriage, Kim Jong Il.^[6] In this, she was supposedly supported by a faction of the North Korean political elite, among them her brother Kim Kwang-hop, and Kim Il Sung's younger brother Kim Yong-ju, and opposed by the faction of her stepson Kim Jong Il.^[6] In the 1970s, her influence was reportedly seen as excessive by the party, who started to curb it.^[6] In parallel, her stepson Kim Jong Il became the designated heir of Kim Il Sung, and his faction worked to remove her from influence.^[6][7] In 1976, Kim Song-ae lost her position as chair of the KDWL, which removed her communication channel to the public and effectively curbed her power base.^[6] Reportedly, Kim Song-ae, as well as her brother-in-law Kim Yong-ju, who had supported her plans to place her son in the position of heir instead of Kim Jong Il, was placed in house arrest in 1981 upon the wish of the designated heir Kim Jong Il.^[6]

In 1993, she was reinstated by Kim Jong Il as chair of the KDWL, but her position was purely symbolic and nominal, and she was removed a second time in 1998.^[8] Since 1998, little information about her has reached the outside world.^[9]

There are rumours that she was killed in a car accident in Beijing in June 2001.^[9] Other reports claimed she was still alive as of July 2011, though in poor health, and that ambassador Kim Pyong-il returned to Pyongyang from his posting in Poland to visit her. In 2012, a report from a North Korean defector claimed that Kim Song-ae had been declared insane in the early 1990s, even before the death of Kim Il Sung, and since then been kept under supervision of a psychiatric nurse in her house arrest.^[7]

She was later reported to have died in 2014,^[2] a date which was confirmed by the Southern Ministry of Unification in December 2018.^[10]

Awards

• Grand Officer of the National Order of Mali, 18 May 1976^[11]
• Order of Kim Il Sung, April 1982^[12]
• National Order of the Republic (Burundi)^[13]
• Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic (1st Class)^[14]

Works

• Kim Song-ae (1969). Let Us Women Become Revolutionary Fighters Infinitely Loyal to the Party and Reliable Builders of Socialism and Communism by Revolutionizing and Working-classizing Ourselves. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 253679297.
• — (1970). On the Women's Emancipation Movement in Korea. Report at the Meeting Held in Honour of the 25th Anniversary of the Founding of the Korean Democratic Women's Union, November 17, 1970. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 1012367.

See also

• Pak Chong-ae

Notes

References

v t e Select[α] family tree of North Korea's ruling Kim family[β][γ][δ]
Kim Song-ryeong 1810–1899 Kim Ung-u 1848–1878 Kim Bo-hyon 1871–1955 Kim Hyong-jik 1894–1926 Kang Pan-sok 1892–1932 Kim Jong-suk 1917–1949 Kim Il Sung 1912–1994 Kim Song-ae 1924–2014 Kim Yong-ju 1920–2021 Kim Young-sook 1947– Song Hye-rim 1937–2002 Kim Jong Il 1941?[ε]–2011 Ko Yong-hui 1952–2004 Kim Ok 1964– Kim Kyong-hui 1946– Jang Song-thaek 1946–2013 Kim Pyong Il 1954– Kim Sol-song 1974– Kim Jong-nam 1971–2017 Kim Jong-chul 1981– Kim Jong Un 1983?[ζ]– Ri Sol-ju c. 1986– Kim Yo-jong 1987– Kim Han-sol 1995– Kim Ju-ae c. 2012[η]–
Notes: ^ To keep the tree of manageable size, it omits five out of the eight known children of Kim Il Sung. Other children not shown in the tree are: Kim Man-il, Kim Kyong-jin, Kim Yong-il, Kim Hyŏn-nam, and Kim Yŏng-il ^ Korean names often have a variety of transliterations into English, which can be confusing. For example, "Kim Jong-chul" may also be written "Gim Jeong-cheol" or "Kim Jŏng-ch'ŏl" among many other variations. See Korean romanization for more information. ^ Huss, Kan; Frost, Clay. "North Korea's First Family: Mapping the personal and political drama of the Kim clan". msnbc.com. Retrieved 20 January 2013. (Confirms many, but not all, of the birth and death years. See individual articles for more references.) ^ Yan, Holly (16 February 2017). "The world's most mysterious family tree: Kim Jong Un's secretive dynasty is full of drama, death". Design by Alberto Mier. CNN. Retrieved 16 February 2017. ^ Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong Il list his birth year as 1942. The Korean calendar is based upon the Chinese zodiac which is believed to characterize one's personality. The year 1942 (Year of the Horse), in addition to being 30 years since Kim Il Sung's birth may be viewed as a better year than others, thus creating a motive to lie about a birth year. ^ Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong Un list his birth year as 1982. The Korean calendar is based upon the Chinese zodiac which is believed to characterize one's personality. The year 1982 (Year of the Dog), in addition to being 70 years since Kim Il Sung's birth, may be viewed as a better year than others, thus creating a motive to lie about a birth year. ^ Birth year for Kim Ju-ae is not publicly known. She may have been born in either late 2012 or early 2013.