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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Kimmie's Widow Had Treatment in Berlin |
| 2012-09-10 |
| A woman presumed to be Kim Ok, the widow of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and new leader Kim Jong-un's stepmother, was treated in hospital in Berlin recently. According to a hospital staffer, she was treated for a cervical disc and coxitis of the right side at the German capital's Charite University Hospital in May and June. Kim stayed in a premier hotel in downtown Berlin after arriving in mid-May. She rode a Mercedes for trips between the hospital and the hotel, accompanied by a North Korean diplomat from Geneva as her interpreter. She is said to have paid cash. Photos obtained by the Chosun Ilbo from a Korean expatriate living there last Friday show the woman sporting a coat and a pair of white sandals with a scarf around her neck. At Beijing Airport earlier she looked nondescript in black elastic pants. Kim Ok had looked after Kim Jong-il since she was chosen for his "Pleasure Squad" in the 1980s. She lived with him since his previous wife Ko Yong-hui, Kim Jong-un's mother, died in 2004 and exercised some power from Kim senior's sickbed after he collapsed with a stroke in August 2008. At the time, Kim Ok established a close relationship with Kim Jong-il's younger sister Kim Kyong-hui and her husband Jang Song-taek, who are now believed to be directing matters behind the scenes. "That apparently consolidated her status even after Kim Jong-il's death," an informed source said. Meanwhile, several members of the North Korean elite including a woman believed to be Kim Baek-yon, regime founder Kim Il-sung's natural daughter, are also in Berlin for medical treatment. She has reportedly been treated for insomnia and anemia in a famous hospital since July, staying with her mother Kim Song-juk (50) in a luxury hotel in downtown Berlin. She has been spotted in the glitzy shopping mile of Friedrichstrasse there. The North Korean elite often go for medical treatment abroad. Kim Kyong-hui had kidney surgery in Moscow in June last year. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 They remember what happened to Josef Stalin: Vladimir Shamberg, described himself as a close friend of Svetlana, Stalin's daughter. "I believe I was the first person she saw after her father's death, and she never spoke about something fishy," he said. Shamberg said he believes Stalin's advisers failed to get him immediate medical care because they were afraid of the consequences, not because they wanted him dead. "They thought if he regained consciousness and saw the doctors, he would suspect a plot and have them all executed," said Shamberg, adding that Stalin eventually received treatment from a major in his guard who happened to be a veterinarian. Panel participants agreed Stalin probably was not murdered, but they did speculate over the lack of medical care. "There was a motivation to letting him die,"Garthoff said. "Stalin was planning a major purge in which most of them [his advisers] would be swept aside." |
| Posted by: Pappy 2012-09-10 14:11 |
| #2 Wait a second - I thought commie health care was top notch. |
| Posted by: Spot 2012-09-10 07:43 |
| #1 And Jong-un and First Babe are where, today??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-09-10 00:13 |