KCNA/EPA
North Korean President Kim Jong-un.
Among the many mysteries surrounding the North Korean leader, the secret surrounding his mother is one of the most intriguing. Kim never publicly mentioned her by name throughout his 15 years in power. Why?
The legitimacy of the hereditary dictatorship is based on “Mount Paektu lineage”, the name given to the highest mountain on the Korean Peninsula, celebrated as the mythological birthplace of the Korean people and also as the place where founding leader Kim Il-sung is said to have conducted guerrilla activities against Japanese colonizers.
Unlike the two previous mothers of the regime’s lineage — Kang Pan-sok, mother of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and Kim Jong-suk, mother of Kim Jong-il —, both revered as “mothers of Korea”, Ko Yong-hui He is an obscure figure, without anything having been named after him.
“Stained” lover and jjaepo
This discretion towards Ko Yong-hui may be due to his origins: a “stained” social class. And also the fact that she was a lover. Both factors could threaten the regime, according to analysts.
According to information gathered by biographers, Ko was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1952, daughter of parents from Jeju Island, today in South Korea, enemy territory.
While residing in Japan, Ko’s family was part of the “coreanos zainichi”, as the Korean immigrants who lived there during Japanese colonial rule over the peninsula are known, between 1910 and 1945.
Those who returned to the North were initially viewed with envy for bringing money, clothes and appliances from their capitalist neighbor. But they were also labeled as “jjaepo,” a derogatory term applied to a group considered tainted by dangerous foreign ideologies.
In North Korea’s strict social classification, known as “songbun”, Zainichi Koreans belong to the “swinging class”, located between the core class and the hostile class. They are subject to intense state surveillance and are often prevented from accessing good universities or promising jobs.
North Korea is a deeply hierarchical society, which some analysts say resembles a caste system. It is also a “guilt by association system”in which citizens are punished for the actions of their family members, recalls Jeung Young-tae, from Dongyang University.
Story of “Cinderella”
When he was around 10 years old, his family emigrated to North Korea. He was part of a group of around 93,000 Koreans who moved from Japan to the communist state between 1959 and 1984, as part of the “Paradise on Earth” campaign, a program that promised returnees an idyllic life, with free healthcare and education, as well as full employment.
Ko, however, managed to escape the life of hardship and poverty that awaited other Koreans, after catching the attention of then-leader Kim Jong-il.
Although Kim has never publicly introduced his wife or partner, intelligence reports indicate that he was already married to Kim Young-sookdaughter of a high-ranking military officer, in a marriage handpicked by her father.
According to Yoji Gomi, a Japanese reporter who published a book about Ko in 2025, she was a member of the elite Mansudae Art Troupe and caught Kim’s attention for her “natural beauty and dancing skills”. And although she never married the supreme leader and their union was not recognized by the regime, Ko managed to live what Gomi calls a “Cinderella life”.
Kim Jong-un, illegitimate son who loved Japan
Reports suggest that Kim fell madly in love with Ko, who would later become interested in the country’s politics. But with his official wife living in the capital, Pyongyang, Ko and his three children were hidden 210 kilometers awayin the coastal city of Wonsan.
“Kim Jong-un is not the son of the official wife. He is, essentially, the ‘illegitimate son’ of Ko Yong-hui”diz Kim Hyung-su, da Northern Research Association.
“The Paektu lineage [do regime] is seen as sacred, hence the idea of the leader being the son of a jjaepo it’s unimaginable.”
Children born out of wedlock face strong stigma in North Korea, which, despite its communist facade, remains steeped in Confucian beliefs. Concepts such as filial piety and loyalty have been used to indoctrinate the population, analysts say.
Gomi also mentions another reason why Kim Jong-un grew up far from the capital. At the time, a ferry connected Wonsan to Japan, which made it easier for Ko to meet people arriving on this ship and obtain Japanese products. “Ko missed his home in Japan a lot and taught his children Japanese,” he says.
Kenji Fujimoto, a sushi chef who served Kim Jong-il between 1988 and 2001, wrote in his own book that Kim Jong-un was “good at singing Japanese songs” and “envious of Japan’s advanced economy.”
Kim Jong-un even visited Disneyland in Tokyo, Japan, with his older brother, according to Japanese media, which cited authorities at the time. Gomi says Ko also traveled to Japan separately with his secretary.
A documentary taken
“Ko Yong-hui was never recognized as Kim Il-sung’s daughter-in-law,” wrote Ryu Hyun-woo, a North Korean diplomat in exile, in his book Kim Jong Un’s Secret Vault.
Photographs of Kim Il-sung and grandson Jong-un would have been circulated everywhere if Ko had gotten the elder Kim’s approval, says Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute.
But although this did not happen, Ko won Kim Jong-il’s trustserving as the country’s de facto first lady, accompanying her husband on military inspections and befriending his inner circle. Kim would even ask for his opinion before making political decisions, wrote Fujimoto, the chef.
An official documentary produced after Kim Jong-il’s death in 2011 showed images of Ko accompanying the then supreme leader on visits around the country, although he never revealed his name.
The documentary was also never released publicly, having only been shown to senior party officials in June 2012, Cheong said, although it was later released illegally and circulated among ordinary citizens via smuggled USB thumb drives.
“As it spread… people’s curiosity about Ko Yong-hui soared, so the regime quickly withdrew [o documentário],” he says, adding that his past could compromise the regime’s legitimacy.
So how did his mistress’s second son — Kim Jong-il’s youngest son — end up inheriting power?
Ko took his son to succession
Many biographers believe that Ko actively promoted Kim Jong-un to the succession.
Ko’s younger sister told him he had to become the next leader or else his family would be at risk, wrote veteran journalist Anna Fifield in her book The Great Successor: The Secret Rise and Rule of Kim Jong Un.
Kim Jong-il’s eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, fell early from grace for questioning North Korea’s hereditary succession and advocating reformssays Gomi, who exchanged emails with him for years.
Jong-nam’s political views could be the product of a decade of study abroad; he was fluent in French and English. He also gained a reputation as a bohemian due to his frequent trips to casinos and his lifestyle.
After Jong-nam’s return to North Korea, rumors continued that Ko Yong-hui was preparing his children for the succession. But yours eldest son, Jong-chul, was removed as heir due to his heavy dependence on opiumaccording to a book by Ryu, the former diplomat. Ryu said that Jong-chul once knocked on his door in the early hours of the morning and demanded opium.
Kim Jong-un then became his father’s favorite due to his leadership potential and competitive nature.say analysts.
Ko’s sister and her husband were tasked with looking after Kim and her older brother while they both studied in Switzerland. But the couple fled to the US in 1998 after Ko was diagnosed with breast cancer. They feared they “would no longer be needed by the regime much longer,” according to a 2016 Washington Post article in which they were interviewed.
Although Kim Jong-un became the successor, the couple’s fears were, arguably, well-founded. After coming to power, one of his uncles was executed while Jong-nam was in Malaysia.
“Spreading doubts like wildfire”
Ko died before Kim Jong-il, but his death, in a Paris hospital, was not reported by North Korean state media. Kim Jong-un’s secret parentage may, however, be the reason why his birthday has not been declared a national holiday, unlike his grandfather’s and father’s birthdays, analysts say. Drawing attention to his birth could raise difficult questions about his mother and why he was raised outside of Pyongyang.
“Revealing the truth can spread doubt like wildfire,” says Kim, the investigator.
Although he is at the top of North Korea’s hierarchy, Kim Jong-un’s origins would technically place him relatively low in the social order because of his ties to zainichi and defector Koreans, wrote Ryu, the former diplomat.
The secrecy surrounding Kim Jong-un’s ancestry may be part of the reason he publicly introduced his wife, Ri Sol-juat the beginning of his government, while apparently grooming his teenage daughter, Ju Ae, as a future successor, argues Cheong.
A former singer with a prestigious artistic group, Ri is believed to come from an upper-middle-class family in Pyongyang, according to South Korean intelligence. Some reports suggest her father was a university professor. She was sent by the State to study classical singing in China, an indication of her talent.
Will Kim Jong-un ever reveal his mother’s origins? It would be a challenging task, even for North Korea’s propaganda machine.
