Is this Kim Jong Un’s secret lover? North Korean pop star rumored to have given birth to her love child seen with chubby dictator

A North Korean pop star has been spotted with Kim Jong-un amid rumors that she is his secret love and gave birth to his love child.

After leaving her position in North Korea’s main 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 other attendees 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 National Intelligence Service (NIS) official in neighboring South Korea, said the boy was named Kim Il-bong.

Choe recently told the Korea Times that Kim Jong-un also has a legitimate son with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, but that the child is too “pale and thin” for public life.

Speaking to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, he described the contrast between the half-siblings.

He said: “The illegitimate son, Kim Il-bong, is robust, but the first son born to Kim’s wife is skinny to the point of being described in North Korean terms as pitiful.”

According to the former spy, Kim Jong-un met Hyon Song-wol when 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 was formed that continued upon her return to North Korea.

Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, disapproved of the marriage and ordered him to break it up, according to a 2012 South Korean report.

But after his father’s death, “the son is believed to have rekindled the relationship,” according to the report.

Michael Madden, founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, said there was good reason to believe the duo first came together in Switzerland.

He said: “I think one thing we can say with quite 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 went and lived in the house with them, and looked after them and cared for them.

“There is a good chance that Hyon Song-wol resided with Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong when they lived in Switzerland, or that he went to visit them.”

“We can say pretty confidently that they have a very close relationship,” he added.

Madden, a fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., said the genesis of the love child rumors dates back to 2012, when Hyon performed on stage while pregnant.

And although he is skeptical of the rumors, he believes that a historic date between the two could have occurred.

He said: ‘If Hyon Song-wol has a beloved son and is a mistress, that would bring a scandal to Kim Jong-un, right?

‘So why would I bring her up in any kind of public office?’

He continued, “The only thing I’ve heard that might have some degree of credibility, because it’s more nuanced, is that there’s a rumor that Hyon Song-wol might have taken Kim Jong-un’s virginity.”

However, he added: “Who the fuck knows?”

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 have compared her to Lana Del Rey.

Today she is deputy director of the state Department of Propaganda and Agitation, although her real job is to work directly under the dictator’s orders.

Madden said: “She works for Kim Jong-un’s personal secretary.”

‘The personal secretary is equivalent to the Prime Minister’s staff who work at 10 Downing Street and are not part of the civil service.

‘She coordinates her agenda, protocol, security measures, things like that.

“She also appears to play a very, very important role in television events and media presentation of North Korea.”

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 marrying Kim.

Even her name remains a mystery, as observers believe that Ri is actually a pseudonym designed to keep her life before marriage a secret.

She was first photographed on Kim’s arm in 2012 at a concert and North Korea later confirmed she was Kim’s wife but said nothing more 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 pronounced.

Sources speaking to the South Korean media when she was first identified said she was a former entertainer and singer, and gave her date of birth as between 1985 and 1989.

She was said to have been photographed in 2005 visiting South Korea during the Asian Athletics Championships as part of the North Korean cheerleading team.

Others said she was a singer with the Unhasu orchestra who may have performed for Kim and his father, Kim Jong-il, during a New Year’s concert in 2010.

“There is a possibility that Jong-un chose her as his wife after seeing her at 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.

Separately, the BBC reported that Ri hastily married Kim in 2009 as part of a succession plan drawn up by Kim Jong-il after he suffered a stroke.

She is believed to have given birth to her first child the following year, with subsequent births taking place in 2013 and possibly 2016, after she disappeared from the public.

According to American basketball star Dennis Rodman, who is an unlikely friend of Kim, his middle son is named Ju-ae, after he let the information slip in an interview.

Nothing is known about the other children.

Before marrying Kim, Ri was sent to Kim Il-sung University, the most prestigious in the country, to study a six-month course on how to be the first lady.

It has also been reported that he earned a science degree from the same university years earlier.

According to a previous AFP report, Ri was born in the northeastern province of North Hamkyong to an academic father and a doctor mother.

That would make her part of the political elite, since those positions are reserved only for those who are 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 good fashion, something unusual in North Korea.

When the country’s press first profiled her, she was said to be wearing “an elegant black suit in the Chanel tradition” and to have once given a Dior bag to Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong-il’s sushi chef.

Fujimoto claimed to have met her and described her as “so lovely… 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 joined him at the negotiating table.

They said they were a loving couple and “seemed alike.”