Kim Song-ae

Kim Song-ae (; 29 December 1924 – September 2014), born Kim Sŏngp'al , was a North Korean politician who served as the first lady of North Korea during the time that the position existed, from 1963 to 1974. She was the second wife of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung from their marriage in 1952 until his death in 1994.

Biography Born Kim Sŏngp'al on 29 December 1924 in South Pyongan Province, Kim Song-ae began her career as a clerical worker in the Ministry of National Defense where she first met Kim Il Sung in 1948. She was hired to work in his residence as an assistant to Kim Jong Suk, Kim Il Sung's first wife. After Kim Jong Suk's 1949 death, Kim Song-ae began managing Kim Il Sung's household and domestic life. During the Korean War she looked after Kim Jong Il and Kim Kyong Hui.

Kim Song-ae later rose in political power. From the mid 1960s until the mid 1970s, Kim Song-ae allegedly held a significant amount of political influence in North Korea. As her tenure of political significance occurred in about the same period as that of Jiang Qing in China during the Culture Revolution, Jang Jin-sung referred to Kim Song-ae as the "North Korean mirror image of Jiang Qing". In December 1972, she became a representative of the Supreme People's Assembly. Since 1998, little information about her has reached the outside world.

There are rumours that she was killed in a car accident in Beijing in June 2001.

Awards Grand Officer of the National Order of Mali, 18 May 1976 Order of Kim Il Sung, April 1982 National Order of the Republic (Burundi) Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic (1st Class)

Works