Uh Oh... N. Korea troubles

Consort's death rocks Kim Jong-il
Michael Sheridan, Beijing
November 15, 2004
HARDLINERS have tightened their political grip on North Korea while Kim Jong-il, the Stalinist state's dictator, has retreated into virtual seclusion after the death of his favourite consort from cancer.

Chinese and Western sources say the regime has prepared for a state of siege as it confronts a re-elected US administration under George W. Bush that is determined to break Pyongyang and disarm it of nuclear weapons.

As Japanese envoys tried to persuade the North Koreans last week to rejoin multinational talks, Mr Kim's absence from the scene led to speculation a debilitating power struggle might have paralysed the ruling group.

This followed the death of Koh Young-hee, a dancer who had provided Mr Kim with an heir-apparent to the world's only communist dynasty.

"The loss of this woman was a blow," said a foreign diplomat.









"But (US Democratic candidate) John Kerry's loss in the US election was a harder one. These are now very worried men."

Diplomats and aid officials in Pyongyang noticed the first signs of a clampdown when some members of their North Korean staff were abruptly reassigned to new jobs and others became more nervous than usual about discussing current affairs. Restrictions had been imposed on foreigners' movements, they said.

Telephones used by foreign residents have been cut off and the secret police have assumed control of the country's mobile phone service.

Entry permits for foreigners have been curtailed.

The story of how personal bereavement and international crisis became intertwined began with the shipment of an elaborate coffin from Paris to Pyongyang during the summer.

North Korean diplomats had ordered it for Koh, 51, who flew home to die after specialists at an exclusive Paris clinic decided she could not be saved from breast cancer.

There was no public funeral, but North Koreans noticed that extravagant praise for a figure called Omonim ("respected mother") had vanished from propaganda documents.

Koh, whose family arrived from Japan in the 1960s, caught Mr Kim's roving eye when she was dancing in the renowned Mansudae Art Troupe.

The dictator, 63, has had at least two wives and many affairs, but defectors say Koh emerged as the most influential woman in a regime beset by dynastic rivalries.

In 1981, she gave birth to their son Kim Jong-chul, who was educated in Geneva and now works in the propaganda department of the ruling Korean Workers Party. A second son, Kim Jong-un, followed three years later.

South Korean intelligence officials have identified Jong-chul as Mr Kim's chosen heir, displacing his eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, whose mother, Song Hye-rim, died in Moscow in 2002 after seeking treatment for depression.

Chinese, Japanese and Russian diplomats have all urged the North Koreans to return to the negotiating table to avoid a showdown with the US. The response was a demand that the US President renounce a refugee law he signed to help North Korean refugees.

Meanwhile, the human toll of China's treaty of friendship with North Korea is mounting. The Chinese have sent home 62 defectors caught in police raids, knowing they are destined for concentration camps. The deportations, commented Chosun Ilbo, the South Korean newspaper, were "tantamount to telling them, 'Go and die"'.

The Sunday Times