'Executed' ex-girlfriend of Kim Jong-un makes TV comeback

A North Korean singer said to be Kim Jong-un's previous girlfriend and showed up for have been executed by terminating squad last year has showed up on state television. 

Hyon Song-Wol was shown conveying a speech at a rally of national craft workers in the capital Pyongyang on Friday. 

The singer was accounted for to have been made up for lost time in royal residence interest last summer having caused the displeasure of Ri Sol-ju, Mr Kim's wife. 

Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju. Photograph: AFP 

The 31-year-old North Korean leader and the performer were said to have been adolescent lovers yet had been compelled to split by Kim Jong-il, Mr Kim's father and predecessor. 

In August, Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper with close links to its nation's insights services, reported that Hyon and 11 other well-known performers had been found making a sex tape and executed. 

However in the television appearance, Hyon expressed appreciation for Mr Kim's leadership and promised to work harder to "stoke up the fire for craftsmanship and inventive work". 

The return of Hyon - perhaps best known for her hit song Excellent Horse-like Lady - came after months of speculation about whether she was alive. 

"They were executed with machineguns while the key members of the Unhasu Orchestra, Wangjaesan Light Band and Moranbong Band as well as the families of the victims looked on," sources allegedly said at the time. 

Nam Jae-Joon, South Korea's spy boss, added weight to the reports in October when two Mps cited him as telling a closed parliamentary session: "We are mindful of the execution of some 10 individuals associated with the Unhasu Orchestra." 

It was also reported that different bands that were some piece of the "new wave" of music ushered in by Mr Kim's succession to the leadership had been compelled to witness the execution as a salutary lesson. 

Asahi Shimbun, Japan's best selling day by day, joined in the reporting, guaranteeing that the extraordinary execution of state performers had been requested to anticipate rumors spreading about the supposedly wanton lifestyle of Ms Ri while she was a performer. 

North Korea denied the reports, calling them an "indefensible" wrongdoing. 

KCNA, the North's state news organization, said the reports were the work of "psychopaths" and "showdown maniacs" in the South Korean government and media. "This is a... hideous incitement harming the poise of the supreme leadership," it said. 

In an obvious endeavor to demonstrate the rumors untrue, North Korean radio in October publicized an execution by the Unhasu Orchestra, yet, with the absence of pictures of the singer as of not long ago, reports of her demise had kept on dogging the Pyongyang administration.