Reports: Kim Jong-un has ex-girlfriend executed
PYONGYANG — A North Korean firing squad last week e ecuted a former girlfriend of leader Kim Jong-un and 11 other entertainers for allegedly violating laws banning pornography — at least according to a outh Korean newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday.
The report by Chosun Ilbo, an nglishlanguage newspaper in eoul, published on Thursday deemed the reported Aug. e ecutions a death blow to e pectations that Kim would oversee a transition of his isolated and tyrannised people into a more open era.
ike many stories out of North Korea, the reports remain unconfirmed and are based on unnamed sources.
In this episode, among the do en performers shot to death while their families and former band members were forced to watch was yon ong-wol, a singer Kim reportedly courted a decade ago but was forced to abandon by his dictatorial father, Kim Jong-il.
yon was pictured by North Korean state television performing at a concert Aug. in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, less than two weeks before her e ecution, Chosun Ilbo reported, posting a picture of the singer u taposed against one of Kim applauding at the concert.
The 1 members of the nhasu Orches- tra and the ang aesan ight usic Band were accused of violating anti-pornography laws by videotaping themselves having se and selling copies of the tape to North Korean fans and in hina.
The outh Korean newspaper, which attributed reports of the e ecutions to sources in hina, said one also claimed that some of those arrested in the Aug. 1 crackdown were found to have Bibles in their possession. ike most communist countries, North Korea denounces religion as an undesirable foreign influence.
yon married a North Korean military officer after Kim’s father forced their breakup, but reportedly continued to see the Pyongyang heir apparent even after her marriage, hosun Ilbo said.
Kim, , is believed to have married yon’s fellow band member, i ol- u, in the last year or so. i began showing up with Kim at cultural events in the capital a little more than a year ago, including at a female band concert in July 1 that featured estern music, mini-skirted violinists and a parade of knock-off isney characters.
The gala raised speculation that Kim would rela longstanding constraints on artistic e pression and social behavior imposed by his father and grandfather since North Korea’s emergence as a separate state after orld ar II.
The performance, which dispensed with the usual dour dress and statemandated repertoire, gave rise to “hopes that the young leader is more open to ideas from overseas, but that was apparently a misreading,” Chosun Ilbo said.
“Kim Jong-un has been viciously eliminating anyone who he deems a challenge to his authority,” the newspaper said, quoting an unidentified source.