So said Kim Yeong-sun (80, photo), vice chair of the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, at her home in metropolitan Seoul on February 15, during an interview with Kukmin Daily. Kim expressed her anger, saying, “Killing a life is not something for a human being to do.”
Kim Yeong-sun was a close friend of Seong Hye-rim, the ex-wife of Kim Jong-il. The two went to high school and college together. Kim majored in dance at Pyongyang Art College, and Seong graduated from the movie and theater department of the College.
Kim said, “My heart broke when I heard the news that Hye-rim’s son Jong-nam was stabbed and killed by a poison needle… Now I really worry about the well-being of Jong-nam’s son Kim Han-sol. He graduated from a college in Paris, and has called Kim Jong-un a dictator. I wish the Republic of Korea government would bring him here and embrace him, to secure his safety.”
During her past, Kim spent 10 years in Yodeok Political Prisoners Detention Center for being close to Kim Jong-il’s ex-wife Seong Hye-rim and her son Kim Jong-nam. Afterwards she had to bear a miserable life, “below that of a human being,” as she puts it. In 2001 she defected from North Korea, and testified about the cruel human rights situation in North Korea at hearings in the United States, Harvard University, and PEN International.
Article and photos by reporter Yeong Dae Yoo (ydyoo@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Original Article in Korean:
"한솔이 안전이 걱정됩니다. 대한민국이 이 땅에 데려와 품어줬으면…": 김영순 북한민주화委 여성위원장이 본 김정남 피살
