Kim Jong-il reportedly began an affair with actress Song Hye-rim in 1968 who gave birth three years later to Kim Jong-nam – which was kept secret from Kim Jong-il until 1975. After learning of his son, Kim Jong-il began to groom him for a future leadership role – although that came to an abrupt end in May 2001 when he was arrested trying to enter Japan on a forged Dominican Republic passport with two women and a boy aged four.