A North Korean pop star has been spotted with Kim Jong Un amid rumors that she is his secret flame and has given birth to his love child.
After leaving her role in North Korea’s premier girl group, the Moranbong Band, Hyon Song-wol now works in the dictator’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.
Now a retired spymaster says their relationship is more than professional, and that she and the despot have a love child.
Choe Su-yong, a former member of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in neighboring South Korea, said the child’s name was Kim Il-bong.
A North Korean pop star (circled) has been spotted with Kim Jong Un amid rumors she is his secret flame and has given birth to his love child
After leaving her role in North Korea’s premier girl group, the Moranbong Band, Hyon Song-wol (circled) now works in the dictator’s personal secretariat.
Choe recently told the Korea Times that Kim Jong-un also has a legitimate son with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, but that 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 stout, but the first son of Kim’s wife is so thin that he is described as pitiful in North Korean terms.”
According to the ex-spy, Kim Jong-un met Hyon Song-wol while he was still at school in Switzerland.
Choe said Hyon served the future tyrant and his sister, Kim Yo-jong, as a nanny and caretaker, but a relationship developed and continued upon their return to North Korea.
Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, disapproved of the match and ordered him to abandon it, according to a 2012 South Korean report.
But after his father’s death, “the son is believed to have rekindled the relationship,” the report said.
Michael Madden, founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, said there was good reason to believe the duo first bonded in Switzerland.
He said: ‘One thing we can say, I think, with a reasonably 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 groups sort of moved into their homes and took care of them.
“There is a very good chance that Hyon Song-wol lived with Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong when they lived in Switzerland, or that she went to visit them.”
“We can say with certainty that they have a very close relationship,” he added.
Choe Su-yong, a former member of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in neighboring South Korea, has said that Kim shares an illegitimate child with singer Hyon Song-wol.
Hyon Song-wol (left) is seen with Kim Jong Un at a public event in Korea
Hyon Song-wol stands behind Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju-ae at a recent New Year’s event in Korea
Mr Madden – a fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington DC – said the genesis of the love child rumors dates back to 2012, when Hyon performed on stage pregnant.
And while he is skeptical of the rumors, he believes a historic meeting between the two could have happened.
He said, “If Hyon Song-wol has a love child and is a mistress, it would cause a scandal for Kim Jong-un, right?
“So why would he bring her out in any public capacity?”
He continued, “The only thing I’ve heard that might have some credibility, because it’s more nuanced, is that there’s a rumor that Hyon Song-wol took Kim Jong Un’s virginity.”
But he added, “Who the hell knows?”
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 required her to perform at “elite secret functions.”
He said, “She is an elite pop star in North Korea. I compared her to Lana Del Rey.”
Today she is a deputy director in the state’s Propaganda and Agitation Department, although 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 similar to the Prime Minister’s staff who work in Number 10 Downing Street and are not part of the civil service.
‘She coordinates his schedule, protocol, safety appointments, things like that.
“She also seems to play a very, very big role in North Korean television events and media packaging.”
As for Kim’s wife Ri Sol-ju, very little is known about her, including her exact age, who her parents are, and what her life was like before she married Kim.
This photo, taken on November 18, 2022 and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) with his wife Ri Sol Ju (second from right) and daughter Ju Ae (second from left) as they attend the test firing of the new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) ‘Hwasong Gun 17’ in North Korea
Even her name remains a mystery, as observers believe Ri is actually a pseudonym designed to keep her pre-marriage life a secret.
She was first pictured on Kim’s arm in 2012 at a concert and North Korea subsequently confirmed she was Kim’s wife but said nothing else about her.
She then appeared with him several times between 2012 and 2014 before largely disappearing from public view until recently, when her presence became much more apparent.
Sources speaking to South Korean media when she was first identified said she was a former cheerleader and singer, and gave her date of birth as sometime between 1985 and 1989.
She is said to have been pictured in 2005 visiting South Korea during the Asian Athletics Championships as part of the North Korean cheerleading squad.
Others said she was a singer with the Unhasu orchestra who may have performed for Kim and his father, Kim Jong Il, at a New Year’s concert in 2010.
“It is possible that Jong-un chose her as his wife after seeing her in the concert hall,” the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said at the time.
There was a North Korean singer named Ri Sol-ju, the BBC reported, but it has never been confirmed whether she and Kim’s wife are the same person.
Elsewhere, the BBC reported that Ri had hurriedly married Kim in 2009 as part of a succession plan put in place by Kim Jong Il after he suffered a stroke.
It is believed that she gave birth to their first child the following year, with subsequent births taking place in 2013 and possibly 2016, after she disappeared from public view.
According to American basketball star Dennis Rodman, an unlikely friend of Kim, their middle child is named Ju-ae, after he let the information slip in an interview.
Nothing is known about the other children.
Before Ri married Kim, he was reportedly sent to Kim Il-sung University, the country’s most prestigious, to take a six-month course to become first lady.
It has also been reported that she obtained a science degree from the same university years earlier.
According to an earlier AFP report, Ri was born in the northeastern province of North Hamkyong, the son of an academic father and a doctor mother.
That would make her part of the political elite, as such positions are reserved only for those most loyal to the regime.
She is also said to be related to Ri Pyong-chol, a former air force general and close adviser to Kim Jong-un.
Ri is also known for her love of fine fashion, which is unusual in North Korea.
This photo, taken on February 8, 2023 and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (right), his daughter Ju Ae (center) and wife Ri Sol Ju (left) attending an army parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army
When she was first described by the country’s press, she wore “a beautiful black suit in the Chanel tradition” and once gifted a Dior bag to Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong-il’s sushi chef.
Fujimoto claimed to have met her and described her as ‘just so charming… I can’t describe her voice, it’s so soft…’.
South Korean diplomats who traveled to the North for talks with Kim Jong Un recently said Ri sat with him at the negotiating table.
They said the pair were an affectionate couple and “seemed alike.”
