Her father was a wealthy
South Korean landowner who moved to the North for political reasons, while her mother was an editor of the official North Korean newspaper
Rodong Shinmun. Seong's younger sister
Song Hye-rim, a popular actress, secretly began an affair with
Kim Jong Il against his father
Kim Il Sung's wishes in the late 1960s or early 1970s, which culminated in Hye-rim's forced divorce from her husband; Hye-rang first learned of the situation on 10 May 1971, when Kim came to her residence in the middle of the night and informed her that he had impregnated her younger sister. Five years later, Hye-rang would become responsible for raising
Kim Jong-nam, the son resulting from that pregnancy; his father was unwilling to let him attend school for fear that the secret of his parentage would be revealed. Hye-rang moved into the household; she also brought her own son
Lee Han-yeong and daughter
Lee Nam-ok to live with them, so that Jong-nam would not be lonely. Their lives were carefully managed by Kim Jong Il to ensure that his father would not find out about his continuing affair; they spent most of their time at residences in east
Pyongyang or
Chungsangdong, occasionally travelling overseas to
Geneva and
Moscow. ==Defection==