 With a dream to carry on the cultural art of South and North Korea after reunification, a North Korean fugitive, O Yong-hui, is preparing to form an art troupe composed of North Korean defectors. O now studies Korean dance at Sejong University. In North Korea, she learned dancing and rhythmic sport gymnastics from An Chang Nam, who was a disciple of the most famous North Korean dancer ever, Choe Sung Hui.
O was a member of a dancing group, Mok Ran Jo, which existed solely to comfort the North's leader Kim Jong Il. She fled North Korea with her husband in February 2002, and entered South Korea last December.
O said that there were two more dance groups set up to entertain Kim Jong Il other than Mok Ran Jo. Mok Ran Jo usually performed disco, tango, waltz and modern dance numbers, while the other two groups took charge of traditional dances. The ladies, she said, usually danced for Kim Jong Il¡¯s weekend parties.
When Kim Jong Il would host a party with special guests, his wife Ko Yong Hui personally picked dancers to perform, giving them instructions to follow, O said. She remembers Kim Yong Nam, president of the Supreme People¡¯s Assembly, and Kim Yong Sun, Kim Ki Nam, and Yom Ki Sun of the Central People¡¯s Committee as regular guests at the parties. After the shows, the North Korean leaders would give out hundreds of dollars and other gifts to the dancers, she said.
O explained that the moment you become a member of Ki Pum Jo, or the dance groups for Kim Jong Il, you lose contact with the outside world. But your daily life becomes rich with luxuries. O said the girls would have French breakfasts, sashimi for lunch and usually Korean or Western style dinners. Their shoes were handmade from Italy and they wore Japanese clothes. Dancers were served with yogurt everyday to help them have healthier skin. Other standard gifts included Omega wristwatches with Kim Jong Il¡¯s name inscribed on them.
Born in Pyongyang, O started doing gymnastics at the age of 11, and went on to win a silver medal at the 1992 Asian Games. However, her life as a dancer ended within a year. O could not help herself from gaining weight while all the dancers were supposed to be always in shape. Promising never to publicize the lives of dancers in Mok Ran Jo, O left the group and lived a life as rhythmic gymnastics choreographer until she fled to South Korea.
Among the rhythmic gymnastic athletes who competed in August's Daegu Universiade were some of O's old training buddies, such as Jo Sun Tok, Kim Un Ju and Pak Kwang Pok. O's eyes welled up as she thought of her friends¡¯ puzzled yet surprised looks when she visited them in Gyeongju during the games.
(Kang Chol-hwan, nkch@chosun.com )
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