Wife of North Korea's Kim is former singer: South Korea media

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The wife of North Korea's Kim Jong-Un is a former singer who caught the leader's eye while she was giving a performance, South Korean media said on Thursday after Pyongyang disclosed the marriage.

Official media in the secretive state revealed on Wednesday evening that a stylish young woman pictured accompanying Kim this month is his wife, Ri Sol-Ju. It gave no details about her and did not say when they wed. But the mere fact that the couple were presented in public marked a new departure for the nation's dynastic leadership.

The world has been scrambling for information about Kim Jong-Un since he took over the impoverished but nuclear-armed state after his father Kim Jong-Il died suddenly last December. He is believed to be in his late 20s but even his exact age is unknown outside the North.

In public, Kim Jong-Un has presented a relaxed and confident image in an apparent attempt to emphasise his readiness to rule despite his youth and inexperience. The disclosure of the marriage was seen as part of the process.

While Kim Jong-Il's wives were never pictured at official functions, ‘the regime is now facing a different situation, and the move is part of work to make Kim Jong-Un appear old and wise enough to rule’, said Seoul-based online newspaper the Daily NK.

The aim is partly to show ‘he is not a child’, said Chang Yong-Suk, of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. South Korean media generally agreed that the short-haired and smiling woman, apparently in her twenties, is a former songstress who was specially trained to become Kim's consort.

Yonhap news agency said she could be seen singing on video footage of a performance released by the North in February last year. Ri had taken a six-month course in the duties of a first lady, it said.

Chosun Ilbo newspaper said Ri was active in the North's Unhasu orchestra until last year and performed for Kim and his father on New Year's Eve 2010. "There is a possibility Jong-Un chose her as his wife after seeing her at the concert hall," it quoted a source as saying.

Another source told the paper that after the marriage Ri had undergone a six-month course in duties of a first lady at Kim Il-Sung University.