Hyon Song-wol

Hyon was a vocalist for the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble. Her biggest hit was the song "Warhorse Maiden" (Korean: 준마처녀; Hanja: 駿馬處女; RR: Junma Cheo'nyeo; MR: Chunma Ch'ŏnyŏ), a 2005 song extolling the virtues of a Stakhanovite textile factory worker. The accompanying music video stars Hyon in the role of "the heroine, dashing around a sparkling factory with a beatific smile, distributing bobbins and collecting swatches of cloth at top speed."[2] The lyrics 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.
All my life I will live to uphold his name![3]

Hyon's other best known songs include, "Footsteps of Soldiers", "I Love Pyongyang", "She is a Discharged Soldier" and "We are Troops of the Party".[3]

Hyon is the leader of the Moranbong Band and of the Samjiyon Orchestra.[4]

In December 2015, Hyon travelled to Beijing to perform with the Moranbong Band in a series of private concerts.[5] In 2017, she was appointed to the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.[6] She participated in talks with South Korea to prepare for North Korea's participation in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.[7] During the Games, she organized concerts by North Korean performers.[8] Hyon's visibility in North Korean politics increased in 2020, when she made multiple appearances, including her inspection of typhoon-ravaged areas with Kim Jong-Un, in their country.[9]

Hyon disappeared from public view in 2006 when, according to reports in the Japanese media, she married a North Korean army officer with whom she had a child.[3] She was reported to have known Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, since they were both teenagers. South Korean government sources told the media that Hyon and Kim Jong-un had been romantically involved in the early 2000s after he returned to North Korea from his studies at a public school in Switzerland. His father reportedly disapproved of the relationship and the younger Kim and Hyon broke it off.[10]

Following Kim Jong-il's death in December 2011, Kim Jong-un was thought to have resumed the relationship. According to South Korean intelligence sources, "rumors about the two having an affair have been circulating among Pyongyang's top elite".[10] In March 2012, Hyon made her first public appearance in six years when she performed, while heavily pregnant, in an event in Pyongyang to mark International Women's Day.[11]

In early July 2012, public interest in Kim Jong-Un's personal life increased when Korean Central Television, North Korea's state-run media station, released footage of Kim sitting next to a then-unidentified woman who frequently appeared with him in public events. South Korean intelligence officials initially identified the woman as Hyon.[12] However, on July 25, 2012, North Korean media announced that the woman was Ri Sol-ju.[13]

According to North Korean defector and human rights activist Yeonmi Park, Kim Jong-un lived with Hyon and had a son with her in 2012 while married to Ri Sol-ju.[14]

On 29 August 2013, The Chosun Ilbo reported that Hyon had been executed by firing squad on the orders of Kim Jong-un along with eleven other performers, including violinist Mun Kyong-jin, both of whom had allegedly made illegal pornographic videos.[15][16] According to a source quoted by the newspaper, "They were executed with machine guns while the key members of the Unhasu Orchestra, the Wangjaesan Light Music Band and the Moranbong Band as well as the families of the victims looked on."[15][17]

Pyongyang's state news agency KCNA denied claims that the singer was executed, and a Japanese news magazine reported that she was seen subsequently.[18]

On 16 May 2014, Hyon appeared on North Korean television participating in the National Convention of Artists, disproving the rumors.[16][19][20][21]

• Media coverage of North Korea
• List of North Korean musicians
• Music of North Korea