Skip to content
Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Kim Ok

Kim Ok reportedly has been the personal secretariat of the DPRK's late leader Kim Jong Il and rumored to have been his mistress or wife.

Biography

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available
KIM OK (1964- ). According to reports from the Republic of Korea (ROK), Kim Ok was for some years in charge of the personal secretariat of Democratic People's Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011. She is also rumored to have been his mistress or wife; one report says that they married in 2007. She is the daughter of Kim Hyo, an official in the Finance and Accounting Department of the Korean Workers' Party, and her brother is Kim Gyun, a vice dean of Kim Il Sung University. She studied piano at the Pyongyang School of Music and then joined Kim Jong Il's secretariat. She came to prominence in 2000, when she accompanied Marshal Jo Myeong-rok on his visit to the United States. She also accompanied Kim Jong Il on his January 2000 visit to the People's Republic of China. In September 2008, when Kim Jong Il apparently fell ill, there was much speculation about her role, with some claiming that she controlled all access to the leader. The ROK newspaper, Joongang Daily reported in November 2009 that she was no longer in Kim's secretariat and had married a military officer. The same report claimed that Kim's sister, Kim Gyeong-hui, had replaced Kim Ok as the person with control over access to the leader. Kim Ok was not a member of Kim Jong Il's funeral committee in 2011, but she was shown on state television among the mourners at the Geumsusan Memorial Palace, where his body lay in state. She was also seen bowing to his youngest son and successor, Kim Jong Un.

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. (Historical Dictionary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, by James E. Hoare, published by RLPG Books, appears by permission of the author and publisher).

Popular Documents

No Documents Were Found for This Resource