Wife of N. Korean Leader Reported Dead (WP)

[VolcanoJen]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35257-2004Aug26.html

TOKYO, Aug. 26 -- South Korean officials said Thursday that they have launched an investigation into reports that the woman considered to be North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's most influential wife has died after a long battle with breast cancer.

News that Ko Young Hee -- idolized in North Korea as "the respected mother" of the nation -- apparently succumbed to her illness was first reported Wednesday on the Web site of a leading South Korean investigative journalist for the Seoul-based Monthly Chosun magazine. South Korea's government-owned KBS TV followed up Thursday with a similar report, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Beijing.

The Japanese-born Ko, 52, has been viewed as the foremost of at three women considered to be among Kim's wives or consorts -- although it remains unclear whether he officially married any of them. Little is known about Ko, but details about her life were provided by U.S. and South Korean analysts who specialize on North Korea.

Ko is believed to have been suffering from breast cancer for several years and her imminent death has been widely anticipated in intelligence circles following her return to North Korea after a reported hospitalization in Paris in April. Officials in Seoul said they are still trying to confirm her death. Unconfirmed reports in the South Korean media indicated that the North Koreans have ordered from France a custom-built coffin for her body.

[maxsolomon]

1. i had no idea Kim was married or had 'consorts'

he seems kinda asexual to me. maybe its the hair.

[David__77]

2. Actually, the intelligence-planted rumors are that he's a "sexaholic."

Kind of funny, isn't it? I do think it's interesting that many of these leaders' family lives are pretty unknown. For instance, I have no idea who Fidel Castro's wife is. Chinese leaders sometimes appear with their wives, but the obsession with leaders' spouses is a pretty American concept.

[Mika]

8. Castro 1st wife: Mirtha [Mirta] Diaz Balart - Yes, the Diaz-Balart fam

Maybe you didn't know that the anti Castro crazed republican Lincoln Diaz Balart is Fidel Castro's cousin.

Anti Cuba hostilities is really a family feud paid for by the US taxpayers.


http://cuban-exile.com/doc_201-225/doc0219.html

On October 12, 1948, Fidel Castro married Mirtha Diaz Balart de Nunez, a student in the Faculty of Philosophy at Havana University. Castro was then in the last stages of law school; Mirtha was a native of Banes, the daughter of a general, and her brother was to become one of Batista's officers. They were married in a Roman Catholic Church in Orient Province, not far from Castro's birthplace. On their honeymoon in Miami, Florida, Fidel was forced to pawn his watch and other valuables. His financial difficulties were relieved, however, when he obtained money from his family in Cuba. He retrieved his property and prolonged the honeymoon.

On the morning of Castro's release from the Isla de Pinos Prison after the amnesty for Moncada, his wife was nowhere to be seen. She later divorced him while he was in exile in Mexico in 1955.

Her brother Raphael Diaz Balart; an ardent Batistiano, who was undersecretary to Ramon Hermida, a minister of the interior to Batista. His resignation was forced after the publication of a letter he wrote to Hermida in which he censured him for a talk he had with Castro in the Isla de Pinos Prison.

Fidel and Mirtha Castro had one child, a son, Fidel Castro Jr., who was born September 1, 1949. The picture at the right, (one of the few extant shots of Mirtha) shows mother and son embracing during a reunion in Mexico City. Mirtha had claimed the boy had been taken from her by Castro's sister who, in turn, claimed the boy had been kidnaped to bring pressure on Castro to end the revolution. Mirtha denied this and the Mexican authorities dropped their investigation when they were satisfied this was a private not a political matter.

[daleo]

3. Reported sex lives of leaders seem to vary with our intentions

If their sex lives are reported to be particularly strange, then it is a good sign that the powers that be are seriously considering going to war with that country. If their sex lives are not reported on, or are reported to be "normal", then their country is fairly safe from attack. I doubt whether their actual personal lives correspond much to what we are told, or led to believe.

[Nambe]

4. I hope this doesn't increase his perceived insanity.

Do they have children? I've never paid much attention to reports about him because of their source.

[maxsolomon]

5. i hope they don't

that's one dynasty i wouldn't mind seeing end.

i can't think of any that i really care about seeing continue.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. He has three consorts?

That's not very, um, fair, is it? I thought communism was meant to be about equality ...

[renotyme]

7. equal yes, but some more equal than others

and honorable son is the most equal of all!

[hypatia]

9. My heart goes out

to Kim Jong Il. I wonder if the struggle against US oppression had anything to do with her death.

Bush is a BASTARD.

[FightinNewDem]

10. Hope she likes the heat.

Save your sympathy. Consumed with his warped sense of importance, this sick little bastard lets his own countrymen die a slow, painful death from cold and hunger. He combines the worst traits of such charmers as Hitler, Stalin, Milosevic, Trevelyan, et al.

If you want to shed tears, shed them for the suffering people of the Hermit Kingdom.

[thebigidea]

11. bwhahahah. Yeah, that just reeks of pure sincerity.