Kim Jong-suk
Kim Jong-suk married Kim Il Sung in the Soviet Union, most likely in 1941. On February 16, 1941 (or 1942, sources vary), in the Soviet village of Vyatskoye, Kim Jong-suk gave birth to Kim Jong-il, who was given the Russian name "Yuri Irsenovich Kim," and the nickname "Yura." In 1944, Kim Jong-suk gave birth to a second son, Kim Man-il in Korean and "Alexander" or "Shura" in Russian. In 1946, she gave birth to daughter, Kim Kyŏng-hŭi. Augustina Vardugina, a woman from Vyatskoye, was in her teens when Kim Il-sung’s guerrilla group camped there. She remembers Kim Jong-suk, and how she would come to the village to barter military rations for chicken and eggs. Her son, Kim Jong-il, would be holding her hand.
Cho Hae-il
Cho Hae-il was born April 18, 1941 in Manchukuo and was originally given the name Haeryong, which means "Sea Dragon". After the liberation of Korea his family returned to Seoul, and five years later the Korean War began. During the war his family joined the stream of refugees who retreated to Busan, only returning so Seoul in 1954 after the cessation of hostilities. Cho entered Posung High School where, by his own admission, he had "the lowest scholastic achievements". At this school he entered the creative writing club. In 1960 he lived through the student revolution of April 19, about which he said made him very proud for the achievements of others and very shamed for his own failure to participate.