Kim Jong-Il's Wife in Critical Condition:
The wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered head injuries in a car accident last month and is in critical condition, a Japanese daily reported Tuesday.Over at Free Republic where a poster speaks Korean, the story is that her driver drove off before she was fully in the car. Can you say "revised career path"?
The Sankei Shimbun quoted a "Korean Peninsula source" for its report about 50-year-old Ko Yong-hi, but had no other details.Hmm, sounds like one of the "Pleasure Group".
The paper, known for its tough stance toward North Korea, said Pyongyang had recently been trying to raise Ko's profile, leading to speculation that one of her two sons may be picked as Kim's successor.
Kim has had other wives, and children with them.
Little is known about Ko other than that she was born in Japan to ethnic Koreans and moved to North Korea in the early 1960s.
She is said to have been a member of a dancing and singing troupe in Pyongyang.
Media reports in Japan have said Ko has recently been referred to as "the beloved mother," lending weight to reports that one of her two sons is in line to succeed Kim.Ain't royalty grand?
North Korea watchers have said the favored son appears to be Swiss-educated Kim Jong-chul, who is in his early 20s.
Another of Kim's sons by a different wife had been seen as heir apparent, but his chances are thought to have waned after he was caught trying to sneak into Japan more than two years ago using a fake Dominican Republic passport
Media reports said Kim Jong-nam had been planning to visit Tokyo's Disneyland.
