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==