Kim Ok-sook

Kim Ok-suk (Hangul: 김옥숙, Hanja: 金玉淑) (born 8 September 1935) is the widow of South Korean President Roh Tae-woo. She was the first lady when Roh Tae-woo was in office, from 1988 to 1993. Early life Kim was born on September 8, 1935, in Antoku-men in Keishōhoku-dō to Kim Young-han and Hong Moo-kyung. She is the fourth child of a family with three sons and two daughters. Her older brother Kim Pok-tong, served as a soldier in the South Korean Army and later was a politician. Her sister was the wife of former Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Geum Jin-ho. She attended and graduated from Gyeongbuk Women's High School in 1954. In 1956, she attended the Department of Family Education at Kyungpook National University. On May 31, 1959, she married Roh Tae-woo, then an army officer, at the Daegu Cultural Wedding Hall. As a result of the marriage, she dropped out of the university in her third year. During the 1987 South Korean presidential election, she attended her husband's election campaigns, but always waved flags or smiled to the crowd. On October 21, 1987, she did not even reveal the fact that she accompanied Roh at an election rally in Daejeon, which gave off a strong feeling that she was promoting the image of an ordinary wife, as a basic strategy to gain electoral votes for her husband.