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Chinese sources in Beijing well informed about North Korea said Monday that Koh Young-hee, the wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, died of a heart attack in the early morning of August 13.
The sources said they confirmed through a number of paths that Koh had passed away. Out of fears of a possible power struggle over succession and in accordance with the North Korean practice of keeping Kim Jong-il's private life top secret, Koh's funeral was carried out without official announcement of her death.
According to the sources, out of all of Kim's women, including the late Seong Hye-rim and Kim Yeong-suk, the Japan-born Koh was virtually his official wife who played the role of First Lady.
The direct cause of Koh's death was a heart attack, but it was known that she had been receiving treatment for breast cancer for several years, and last year, her condition grew terminal following a relapse.
In addition, her health worsened after she suffered severe head injuries in a car accident last September, and a French medical team secretly visited North Korea last year. This year, she received tumor and brain treatment in a hospital in Paris.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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