A bloody series of executions in North Korea is being reported by papers in South Korea and Hong Kong. One of the dead is said to be the former girlfriend of the little dictator Kim Jung un. The executed were members of three of North Korea’s most popular music bands, the Unhasu Orchestra, the Wangjaesan Light Music Band and the Moranbong Band. The slaughter of the singer, Hyon Song Wol (left) was supposedly triggered by the making of a pornographic video of band members which some of them were said to be selling. Analysts in Japan say however that regardless of whether such a video exists, it cannot be the reason for such a harsh reaction. Some think that there is a scent of politics or revenge in the air. Kim Jung un’s wife, Ri Sol ju (right) used to be a singer in the Unhasu Orchestra. So far as anyone knows, she is doing fine. An expert on North Korean affairs believes the reported machine-gun executions were done for “political reasons.” “If these people had only made pornographic videos, then it is simply not believable that their punishment was execution,” Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University and an authority on North Korean affairs, told The Daily Telegraph. “They could have been made to disappear into the prison system there instead. “There is a political reason behind this,” he said, suggesting that the groups may have been leaning towards a rival faction in Pyongyang’s shadowy political world. “Or, as Kim’s wife once belonged to the same group, it is possible that these executions are more about Kim’s wife,” Professor Shigemura added. The nickname Kim Jung Unstable is there for reason, it seems.
