A report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had his former mistress, a well-known singer in the country, publicly executed made headlines around the world recently — but observers say the account should be taken with a grain of salt.
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The report was published by one of South Korea's most read newspapers, The Chosun Ilbo, which cited unnamed "sources in China."
It said that singer Hyon Song-wol was arrested on Aug. 17 for breaching the country's laws on pornography. Hyon was reportedly executed in public, by a firing squad using machine guns, on Aug. 20 along with around 11 other members of the state-run Unhasu Orchestra and the Wangjaesan Light Music Band.
The victims "were accused of videotaping themselves having sex and selling the videos," according to the report, and some "allegedly had Bibles in their possession, and all were treated as political dissidents."
But to what extent the salacious and gruesome details are to be believed remains an open question.
While there were numerous public reports Tuesday about the high-profile arrival of former NBA player Dennis Rodman in Pyongyang, accurate information about executions, like much else of what transpires in North Korea, is difficult to come by. And details about the personal lives of the country's rulers are guarded particularly closely.
The Hermit Kingdom, as North Korea is sometimes known, ranked second-last on Reporters Without Borders' most recent press freedom survey, two spots behind Syria and just ahead of Eritrea. Television, radio, telephone networks and the internet are controlled by the government in such a way as to minimize contact between the East Asian country's 24 million people and the rest of the world.