North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: AFP
Report claims North Korean leader's aunt was granted US political asylum
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 05 November, 2013, 11:30am
SCMP: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s aunt fled to the United States while looking after her nephew during his time at a Swiss boarding school in the 1990s, a report said on Tuesday.
Ko Yong-suk, who effectively vanished in 1998, had in fact been granted US political asylum, South Korea’s JoongAng Daily said, citing a former senior intelligence official and a South Korean diplomat based in Berne at the time.
The newspaper said Ko, who would now be 56, and her husband had cosmetic surgery to conceal their identities and remain under the protection of the US authorities.
Kim Jong-un attended an international school in Berne from 1996-2001 and Ko had been sent to care for him during his studies there.
Ko and her husband reportedly made their initial bid for asylum through the US embassy.
“The United States spirited away the couple without even informing us,” the unidentified intelligence official said.
They were first taken to a US military base in Frankfurt and then flown to the United States.
Ko is the younger sister of Kim’s mother Ko Yong-hui who died from breast cancer in 2004 aged 51.
Few immediate members of the ruling Kim dynasty live overseas.
The most notable exception is Kim’s elder half-brother Kim Jong-nam, who was once considered heir apparent, but who fell out of favour with his father Kim Jong-il following a botched attempt in 2001 to secretly enter Japan and visit Disneyland.
His family has since lived in virtual exile, in Macau, Singapore and China.
Kim Jong-nam’s son Kim Han-sol is currently studying at university in Paris.
***
Dì ruột của lãnh tụ Kim Jong-un tị nạn tại Mỹ
RFA 05.11.2013
Người dì của nhà lãnh đạo Bắc Hàn, bà Ko Yong-Suk, đã bỏ trốn sang Mỹ trong khi chăm sóc cháu trai Kim Jong-un lúc đó đang học tại một trường ở Thụy Sĩ vào những năm 1990.
Theo tờ JoongAng Daily ngày 5/11 đưa tin, bà Ko Yong-Suk, người được cho là đã biến mất vào năm 1998, nhưng trên thực tế lại được Mỹ cho phép tị nạn chính trị.
Theo tờ báo, bà Ko hiện nay khoảng 56 tuổi, chồng của bà cũng đã phẫu thuật thẩm mỹ để che giấu diện mạo và hiện vẫn đang được giới chức Mỹ bảo vệ.
Xin được nhắc lại, ông Kim Jong-un từng học tại một trường quốc tế ở Berne, Thụy Sĩ từ 1996-2001 và bà Ko đã được cử đi chăm sóc cháu trai trong thời gian học ở đây.
Bà Ko là em gái của mẹ ông Kim Jong-un, bà Ko Yong-hui, người qua đời vì căn bệnh ung thư vú năm 2004 ở tuổi 51.
Một số thành viên của gia đình ông Kim hiện cũng đang sinh sống ở nước ngoài.
***
Kim Jong-un’s aunt fled to U.S.
She and husband sought asylum in 1998, had cosmetic surgery
When North Korean leader Kim Jong-un studied at a boarding school in Switzerland, his maternal aunt, Ko Yong-suk, was charged with looking after him in the foreign locale for several years.
Then, 15 years ago, Ko vanished.
The JoongAng Ilbo has learned that Ko, 55, sought political asylum in the United States in 1998. She is receiving protection from U.S. authorities, according to a source who was a high-level official in the National Intelligence Service at the time, which was during the Kim Dae-jung administration.
Both Ko and her husband had cosmetic surgery to conceal their identities, the source said.
When Kim Jong-un attended the prestigious International School of Berne from 1996-01, his aunt looked after him for two of those years.
Ko is the younger sister of Ko Yong-hui, Kim Jong-un’s mother, who was born in Japan and was a member of Pyongyang’s Mansudae Art Troupe. Kim’s mother died in 2004 from breast cancer at the age of 51.
Combining memories of the intelligence source and that of a high-level diplomat who worked at the Embassy of Korea in Switzerland in 1998, the JoongAng Ilbo has learned that Ko Yong-suk and her husband sought asylum from the United States in early May 1998 from the U.S. Embassy in Geneva, which granted it after confirming their identities.
Following instructions by her brother-in-law, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Ko had spent two years in Switzerland looking after Jong-un and hiding her identity from North Korean diplomats.
“U.S. authorities spirited away Ko and her husband without even informing us,” the NIS source told the JoongAng Ilbo, “sending them to the U.S. through a base in Frankfurt.”
Once settling in the U.S., Ko and her husband faced in-depth questioning by U.S. authorities, which extracted a large amount of information about North Korea’s ruling dynasty.
The source said that the couple defected because they knew so many secrets of the internal goings-on in Pyongyang and were scared.
The intelligence source said U.S. authorities gave the couple new identities and “through plastic surgery made them into completely different people.”
They are living in the U.S. with special safeguarding by the Central Intelligence Agency’s witness protection program, he said.
The diplomatic source also confirmed to the JoongAng Ilbo that the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland did not tell Korean officials right away about Ko seeking asylum in the U.S., and that it was only toward the end of May 1998 that they were informed.
When Kim Jong-un’s mother found out that her younger sister had fled to the U.S., she was angry, the intelligence source said. She threatened to track her down and make her pay, saying, “How can she abandon the family and escape just for herself?”
Others asylum seekers from the Kim family include Kim Jong-il’s nephew-in-law Yi Han-yong in 1982. His mother was younger sister of Song Hye-rim, Kim Jong-il’s mistress and mother of Kim Jong-nam. Song also reportedly defected to Moscow in 1996.
Kim Jong-nam, eldest son of Kim Jong-il and Jong-un’s half brother, was the original heir apparent prior to 2010 when he started to live in exile.
Jong-nam drifts among Macao, Singapore and China. His eldest son Kim Han-sol, 19, also leads a nomadic lifestyle, and was last spotted studying in Paris.
BY CHANG SE-JEONG, SARAH KIM [sarahkim@joongang.co.kr]
Labels:
