A dozen popular performers—including Hyon Song-wol, a singer rumored to be an ex-girlfriend of Kim Jong-un—have reportedly been executed by firing squad. From the Telegraph:
The reports in South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper indicate that Hyon, a singer with the Unhasu Orchestra, was among those arrested on August 17 for violating domestic laws on pornography. All 12 were machine-gunned three days later, with other members of North Korea’s most famous pop groups and their immediate families forced to watch. The onlookers were then sent to prison camps, victims of the regime’s assumption of guilt by association, the reports stated. “They were executed with machine guns while the key members of the Unhasu Orchestra, Wangjaesan Light Band and Moranbong Band as well as the families of the victims looked on,” said a Chinese source reported in the newspaper.
Full report here. Below, video of Hyon Song-wol in ostensibly happier times, extolling the virtues of North Korean factory work in her 2005 song, “Excellent Horse-Like Lady.”
