Kim Jong-suk

First wife of North Korean President Kim Il Sung (1917–1949)

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Source-basedRising

Lived 1917–1949, aged 32

Wikipedia
38 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1917–1949
Aged 32
Awards
2
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

She fought Japanese occupation in the mountains, married the man who would found North Korea, and died at thirty-one — leaving two sons who would rule for the next seventy years.

Biography

About

Kim Jong-suk was born on 24 December 1917 and became an anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter and Communist activist during Korea's colonial period. She married Kim Il Sung, who would become North Korea's founding leader, and bore him a son, Kim Jong Il, in what would become a dynastic succession. She died on 22 September 1949, just after the state's creation, at age thirty-one. Her grandson Kim Jong Un now leads the country, making her the matriarch of three generations of North Korean rule.

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