In North Korea, Putting a Female Face Front and Center

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea - Ri Sol-ju, the wife of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is adding a new look to the nation's leadership. Until she began accompanying Mr. Kim in public appearances in recent weeks, holding his arm and smiling at what appear to be adoring crowds, there had seldom been a woman's face among the North's power circles, which are filled with grim-faced party secretaries in Mao suits and military generals in their olive-colored uniforms.

Since North Korea's state-run news media revealed Ms. Ri's identity on July 25, ending weeks of speculation, the outside world has learned a bit more about her, most notably that she has been a YouTube star of sorts.

North Korea watchers dug up a few video clips from state-run North Korean television that show a woman with the same name singing patriotic songs like “Footsteps of Soldiers.” It was unclear at the time if the woman was Ms. Ri.

Since then, the South Korean government's National Intelligence Service has said it believes the singer is indeed Mr. Kim's wife. The spy agency also told Parliament that Ms. Ri was born in 1989 - making her one of the youngest first ladies in the world - had been married to Mr. Kim in 2009 and had performed with Pyongyang's Unhasu Orchestra at least until early 2011, when she sang at the orchestra's New Year's concert.

The couple is believed to have a child, the agency said.

In the 2011 concert, the woman identified as Ms. Ri performed in front of her husband and her father-in-law, Kim Jong-il, and sang about falling in love with a “broad-chested comrade.” Wearing a red hanbok, a traditional Korean dress, and flanked by saxophonists, she defined a true man as “not one who is handsome or well-clothed” but “one who takes a tough road for others while not losing his smile.”

In another performance in 2010, she sings “Don't Ask My Na me,” a song about an idealized worker.

The South Korean spy agency said that Ms. Ri had been to South Korea as a member of the North's cheering squad in support of athletes competing in a track meet in 2005. South Korean photographers dug up the photos of Ms. Ri, noting her poise and smile.

Mr. Kim's father also seemed to have a soft spot for performers: the current leader's mother, Ko Young-hee, was a dancer with Pyongyang's Mansudae Art Troupe. Kim Jong-il's first wife, Sung Hae-rim, was a movie actress, and the woman who was believed to have been his consort in his final years, Kim Ok, was a pianist.

Defectors from North Korea say it is common for children of the top leadership to pick wives from Pyongyang's artistic circles. The performers, who often do shows exclusively for the party and military elites, are selected in a rigorous audition process, and their families' ideologies are investigated in a process that can take months. Talent and looks alo ne cannot guarantee entry into what is considered a privileged class. The fact that Ms. Ri was apparently allowed to travel abroad means that she was trusted by North Korea's leaders, they said.

“In North Korea, arts and literature are a political and propaganda tool before they are a source of entertainment,” said Lee Woo-young, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, South Korea. “Their social status is much higher there than in counties like South Korea.”

Jong Jin-hwa, a North Korean radio broadcaster who now lives in Seoul, said: “In North Korea, songs are all about ideology. They don't contain words like ‘love.' ”

Kim Jong-il, who died in December, saw fertile ground for propaganda in movies and music. He wrote a book about filmmaking and produced operas that featured the struggle against “imperialists” - an overriding theme in North Korea.

Around the time that North Korea formally declared Kim Jong-un as his father's successor in 2010, it required farmers and soldiers to learn a song entitled “Footsteps,” which heralded the coming of “the young general” who would lead the country to a “brilliant future.” The video accompanying the music shows a sunrise, a long-range rocket launch, goose-stepping soldiers and the young Mr. Kim riding a white stallion.

In Pyongyang's secretive hierarchy, officials are measured by how close they stand to the leader in public. Under Kim Jong-il, no wife or consort was in sight. But his 66-year-old sister, Kim Kyong-hee, still shows up with Kim Jong-un, trailing behind him, and many outside analysts say she helps guide him behind the scenes.

She looks as dour and sickly as her brother in his last days, her eyes usually obscured by dark glasses. Despite the enormous power she is said to wield with her husband, Jang Song-thaekck, she belongs to a generation of North Korean women who lived under strictures regarding “prope r behavior for socialist women”: no smoking, no driving, no bicycling, and no trousers unless they worked in the fields.

The emergence of a youthful first lady - not just visiting collective farms but watching a live performance featuring a cast of Disney characters - is part of what analysts say is Kim Jong-un's efforts to forge a new leadership style.

Still, things will not change quickly in North Korea, said Kim Young-soon, a former North Korean dancer who defected to the South nine years ago.

“For instance, North Korean performers won't be allowed to have fan clubs,” Ms. Kim said. “In North Korea, there can be no stars except Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un.”