Mystery surrounds Kim Jong-un's new right-hand woman - a famous pop star who is rumoured to be his secret girlfriend.
In the last few years, speculation has arisen about the pop star lover who has continued to appear alongside North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un.
Usurping the leader’s younger sister as his right-hand woman, the hit singer began attending factory visits, formal parades and ceremonies, including the opening night of the 2019 Mass Games, alongside the all-powerful dictator.
Hyon Song-wol, 44, is the lead singer of an all-women group named Moranbong Band, as well as the Head of the North Korean Samjiyon Orchestra. The band's chart-topping songs stir party patriotism.
The 10 or so musicians play electric keyboards, guitars and violins dressed in spangled, lowcut outfits and quasi-military uniforms.
Their most popular hit, Excellent Horse-Like Lady, tells the seemingly saucy story of a textile factory worker’s love for the leader.
The lines include “Our factory comrades say in jest, Why, they tell me I am a virgin on a stallion, After a full day’s work I still have energy left . . .They say I am a virgin on a stallion, Mounting a stallion my Dear Leader gave me.”
Kim and Hyon met and became romantically involved when he returned from studying at an elite school in Berne, Switzerland, before he succeeded his late father as supreme leader of North Korea in 2011.
However, in true Romeo and Juliet fashion, his father, Kim Jong-il, disapproved of the relationship and ordered it to end.
Instead, Kim Jong-un married his wife Ri Jol-su and they are believed, according to the South’s intelligence service, to have three children.
Meanwhile, Hyon went on to marry an officer in the North Korean military and is believed to have had a baby.
However, in recent years, Ri Jol-su has faded from public view, sliding into the shadows, while Hyon has been taking front and centre.
To add to the intrigue, Hyon’s appearance in the public has sparked confusion for many after she was reported to have been executed in 2013.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper in South Korea reported she and 11 other performers were shot dead by firing squad on Kim’s orders for making an illegal sex tape.
But she reappeared on television the year after her alleged death. The singer was seen delivering a speech at a national art workers rally in Pyongyang in May 2014.
During her speech, the Moranbong band member even thanked Kim for his leadership while pledging to work harder to 'stoke up the flame for art and creative work'.
Such a chain of events- a death and resurrection- is not entirely uncommon in North Korea.
The same situation unfolded for Kim’s chief envoy on US affairs, Kim Hyok-chol, who was reportedly killed following the collapse of his nuclear summit with Donald Trump.
A few weeks after he was supposedly assassinated, the chief was spotted a few seats away from the North Korean leader.
Yet, Hyon’s emergence as a political force has also brought concern for North Koreans over the power that she may yield over the leader and therefore the country.
NK Pro, a North Korean analysis website, said she appeared to have a senior role in the party’s propaganda department, as well as being a member of the central committee of the Workers’ Party.
This change in dynamic has resulted in an intriguing power shift. Hyon’s appearance at the leader’s side has ousted his ambitious sister from her position as understudy.
Wang Son-taek, a South Korean journalist, wrote that the apparent power shift may indicate a rift with the ruthless sister, possibly due to the growing independence she acquired amid persistent rumours about the dictator’s health problems in 2020.
His absence from his late grandfather's birthday celebrations in mid-April 2020 - the most important day in the North's political calendar - led to claims that the dictator was seriously ill or dead.
By the time he resurfaced in May, his younger sister’s influence had been growing, particularly in the international sphere. During his absence, a flurry of international diplomacy in 2018 and 2019 saw her appearing at a series of events.
These included the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and the failed 2019 summit with Donald Trump in Vietnam.
While, before this period, Kim Jung-un sought advice from his politically savvy sister, people are now speculating that Hyon has taken the reins as second in command.
Perhaps she is easier to contain and less of a political threat. Perhaps it's purely a display of his romantic authority.
Either way, it raises questions over the extent to which she exercises political influence over the leader, party and country.
