Buckle Your Seat Belts

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Accident or palace plot? Like so many things in North Korea, it's a mystery. According to Japan's Sankei Shimbun, Ko Young Hee, longtime companion of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, is in critical condition after injuring her head in a car accident. Pyongyang made no comment, but the report raised eyebrows among North Korea watchers since motoring in the Hermit Kingdom isn't very hazardous. (Private ownership of cars isn't allowed.) "If there was an accident," says Sohn Kwang Joo, a research fellow at South Korea's Institute of National Unification Policy, "there is a good chance it wasn't a car accident."

Ko, a Japanese-born Korean former dancer, is one of the three main women in Kim's life, and in recent months North Korea's propaganda machine has referred to her as "The Beloved Mother," prompting speculation that one of Ko's two sons is being groomed to succeed Kim. Jong Nam Kim, an older son by a different mother, is thought to be out of favor with dad. He might want to drive carefully.