NK confirms myterious woman to be Kim Jong-un’s wife

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, and his wife applaud while watching a concert in Pyongyang on July 6. (Photo : Yonhap)

North Korea confirmed Wednesday that a young woman repeatedly seen closely flanking its leader Kim Jong-un in recent public appearances is his wife.

“General Kim Jong-un attended a groundbreaking ceremony along with his wife Ri Sul-joo,” the North’s state-run Korean Central TV reported Wednesday as it describes the young leader’s visit to an amusement park construction site.

A woman with bobbed hair caught the attention of the outside world when she was seen seated next to Kim during a music concert on July 6.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute, identified the young lady as a 27-year-old graduate of Kim Il-sung University.

“Two highly credible sources confirmed that she is the North’s first lady,” he told The Korea Times. “She is from an upper-class family with her father being a professor and her mother an obstetrician.”

Cheong said the woman is believed to have majored in science, adding that she married him in 2009 and gave birth to a child the following year. “The late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arranged his youngest son’s marriage in a hurry after suffering a stroke in 2008,” he said.

A top government official claimed that intelligence authorities instantly recognized the woman next to Kim as his wife. “We were aware that the person flanking him was his wife,” the ranking official said asking for anonymity. <The Korea Times/Lee Tae-hoon>

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