A NORTH Korean pop star who allegedly had a love child with Kim Jong Un has been spotted at his side in Pyongyang.
Dubbed the “North Korean Lana Del Rey”, Hyon Song-wol is rumoured to be the dictator’s secret flame.
Credit: Pen NewsNorth Korean popstar Hyon Song-wol has been spotted close to Kim Jong Un[/caption]
Credit: Pen NewsHyon was spotted walking behind Kim last week[/caption]
Credit: Pen NewsHyon performing while pregnant, reportedly with Kim’s love child in 2012[/caption]
Having left her role in North Korea’s premier girl group, the Moranbong Band, Song-wol now works in the Kim’s personal secretariat.
Last week she was spotted with Kim in Pyongyang, where she was seen glued to her phone while the other aides frantically took notes.
A retired spymaster now claims that their relationship is more than professional, and that she and the despot have a love child.
Choe Su-yong, formerly of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in neighbouring South Korea, said the child was named Kim Il-bong.
Choe recently told the Korea Times that Kim Jong-un also has a legitimate son with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, but the boy is too “pale and thin” for public life.
Speaking to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, he described the contrast between the half brothers.
He said: “The illegitimate son, Kim Il-bong, is sturdy, but the first son born to Kim’s wife is skinny to the extent of being described in North Korean terms as pitiful.”
According to the ex-spy, Kim met Hyon when he was still at school in Switzerland.
Choe said that Hyon served the future tyrant and his sister, Kim Yo-jong, as a nanny-cum-caretaker, but a relationship formed and continued on their return to North Korea.
Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, disapproved of the match and ordered him to break it off, according to a South Korean report from 2012.
But after his father’s death, “the son is thought to have rekindled the relationship” the report said.
Michael Madden, founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, said there was good reason to believe that the duo first bonded in Switzerland.
He said: “One thing we can say, I think, with a fairly good degree of confidence in its accuracy, is that they had a close relationship when he was studying in Switzerland.
“What ended up happening was that members of these elite performing arts troupes went and sort of lived in the house with them, and looked after and took care of them.
“There’s a very good chance that Hyon Song-wol might have resided with Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong when they lived in Switzerland, or she might have gone to visit them.”
“We can say pretty reliably that they have a very close relationship,” he added.
Mr Madden – a fellow of the Stimson Center in Washington DC – said the genesis of the love child rumours went back to 2012, when Hyon performed on stage pregnant.
And while he’s sceptical of the rumours, he believes a historic tryst between the two could have happened.
He said: “If Hyon Song-wol has a love child and is a mistress, that would bring scandal to Kim Jong-un, right?
“So why would he be bringing her out in any kind of public capacity?”
Mr Madden estimated that Hyon was about seven years older than Kim.
She would have had a high security clearance, he said, because her music career would have obliged her to perform at “elite secret functions”.
He said: “She’s an elite singer/pop star in North Korea. I’ve likened her to Lana Del Rey.”
Today she is a deputy director in the state’s Propaganda and Agitation Department, though her real job is working directly under the dictator.
Mr Madden said: “She works for Kim Jong-un’s personal secretariat.
“The personal secretariat is equivalent to the Prime Minister’s staff that works in Number 10 Downing Street that’s not part of the civil service.
“She coordinates his schedule, protocol, security arrangements, things like that.
“She also seems to play a very, very large role in North Korean television events and media packaging.”
Credit: Pen NewsA photo shows Hyon with Kim and his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, at a recent New Year’s event[/caption]
Credit: Pen NewsThe pair have been spotted very close together[/caption]