Hyon Song-Wol reappears on state TV

'Executed' Kim Jong-Un girlfriend reappears on North Korea television

Singer was reported to have been killed by firing squad last year for making a sex tape but has turned up on state TV alive and well

A North Korean singer said to be Kim Jong-Un’s ex-girlfriend and reported to have been executed by firing squad last year has appeared on state television, apparently alive and well.

Hyon Song-Wol was shown on state television delivering a speech at a national art workers rally in Pyongyang on Friday .
 

The singer was reported to have been caught up in palace intrigue last summer having incurred the displeasure of Ri Sol-ju, Mr Kim’s wife. The 31-year-old North Korean leader and the performer were said to have been teenage lovers but had been forced to break up their relationship by Kim Jong-il, the deceased Dear Leader.
 

Then in August, Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper with close links to that country’s intelligence services, reported that Hyon and eleven other well-known performers had been caught making a sex tape and executed.
 

But on television this week, Hyon expressed gratitude for Mr Kim’s leadership and pledged to work harder to “stoke up the flame for art and creative work”.

The reappearance of Hyon - perhaps best known for her hit song Excellent Horse-like Lady - came after months of speculation about whether or not she was alive.

“They were executed with machine guns while the key members of the Unhasu Orchestra, Wangjaesan Light Band and Moranbong Band as well as the families of the victims looked on,” sources reportedly said at the time.

South Korea’s spy chief Nam Jae-Joon added weight to the reports when he said in October that he was “aware” of the alleged execution.

“We are aware of the execution of some 10 people associated with the Unhasu Orchestra”, two lawmakers quoted Mr Nam as saying at a closed door parliamentary session, according to Yonhap news agency.

It was also reported that other bands that were part of the “new wave” of music ushered in by Mr Kim’s succession to the leadership had before forced to witness the execution as a salutory lesson.
Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s best selling daily, joined in the reporting, claiming the rare execution of state performers had been ordered to prevent rumours spreading about the supposedly decadent lifestyle of Ms Ri, North Korea’s first lady, while she was an entertainer.

North Korea angrily denied the reports, calling them an “unpardonable” crime.
The North’s state news agency KCNA said the reports were the work of “psychopaths” and “confrontation maniacs” in the South Korean government and media.

“This is an unpardonable, hideous provocation hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership,” a KCNA commentary said.

In an apparent attempt to prove the rumours untrue, North Korean radio in October aired a performance by the Unhasu orchestra but the lack of pictures of the singer until last week reports of her death had continued to dog the Pyongyang regime
 

Afro-Chinese marriages in China

Guangzhou is witnessing many Afro-Chinese marriages, but the mainland’s lack of citizenship rights for husbands and a crackdown on foreign visas means families live in fear of being torn apart.


Eman Okonkwo’s foot-tapping at the altar is not a sign of nerves. The groom’s palms aren’t sweaty, there are no pre-wedding jitters and certainly no second thoughts. Today he is realising a dream imagined by countless African merchants in Guangzhou: he is marrying a Chinese bride.
Seven days earlier, Jennifer Tsang’s family was oblivious to their daughter’s romance. Like many local women dating African men, the curvaceous trader from Foshan, who is in her late 20s – that dreaded “leftover woman” age – had feared her parents would be racially prejudiced.
Today, though – having tentatively given their blessing – they snuck into the underground Royal Victory Church, in Guangzhou, looking over their shoulders for police as they entered the downtown tower block. Non-state-sanctioned religious events like this are illegal on the mainland.
Okonkwo, 42, doesn’t have a single relative at the rambunctious Pentecostal ceremony, but is nevertheless delighted.
“Today is so special,” beams the Nigerian, “because I have married a Chinese girl. And that makes me half-African, half-Chinese.”
In Guangzhou, weddings like this take place every day.

Source: SCMP

Growing hostility to foreigners drives Hong Kong-born Anna Lo out of Northern Ireland politics

A Hong Kong-born woman who became Britain's first ethnic Chinese parliamentarian says her decision to quit politics - and possibly her adopted home - reflects a growing hostility to foreigners and the rise of far-right politics across Europe.
Northern Ireland politician Anna Lo Man-wah announced last week that she would not seek re-election for the Belfast South seat she has held for the moderate Alliance Party for eight years.
In an interview with the Sunday Morning Post, she said her decision stemmed from the inability of people in her adopted homeland to shake off sectarian hatred and a growing sense of insularity and anti-foreigner sentiment across Europe, reflected in recent European election results.
Lo, 63, went to Shau Kei Wan East Government Secondary School and left the city to start a new life in Northern Ireland in 1974 - at the height of what became known as "The Troubles".
She said of certain sections of the community she represents: "They're scaremongering the British people, telling them that immigrants are taking people's jobs, that they take benefits and are not contributing."
Lo said a rise in racism, with two racially motivated incidents reported in Northern Ireland each day, had left her feeling vulnerable, despite having lived through some of the province's worst sectarian violence.
The three-decade conflict saw more than 3,500 people killed and more than 50,000 injured in a bitter battle between the pro-British, predominantly Protestant loyalist community and the predominantly Catholic minority who favoured reunification with the rest of Ireland.
While the 1998 peace accord committed both sides to "the mutual respect, the civil rights and the religious liberties of everyone in the community", an upsurge in sectarian violence appeared to have found a new target - immigrants.
It is a trend Lo believes has its roots in the wave of intolerance "all over the UK and Europe, towards immigrants, immigration and towards Islam".
Comments by Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson of the majority Democratic Unionist Party, a loyalist party, in support of a pastor who called Islam a "doctrine spawned from hell" were particularly distressing, Lo said. She believed they could be used to justify more violence.
Despite being showered with flowers, e-mails and text messages, and seeing a Facebook page attract more than 16,000 supporters urging her to stay on, Lo is adamant it is time to leave politics following threats from a loyalist mob as she helped her party campaign during last month's European and local elections.
When the European results came in, the United Kingdom Independence Party had won the biggest share of the vote. The right-wing party takes an anti-immigration stance and looks to increase border controls within the European Union.
Anna Lo Man-wah and her family. Photo: SMP
Lo said: "My sons are concerned about the threats against me and want me to go to England, but I love it here. This is my home." But she added: "I don't feel things are getting better. It's just bickering all the time. I'm disillusioned with the current state of politics, which is still mired in the past. It's tribal politics, us-and-them politics, not politics for all in Ireland."
Lo expressed frustration that a racial equality strategy in the works for seven years had yet to be approved.
The Chinese community has been the largest ethnic minority in Northern Ireland since the early 1970s, when none of the fast-food chains wanted to set up there because of "The Troubles". Many ran restaurants.
According to the Chinese embassy in London, there were nearly 10,000 Chinese citizens living in Northern Ireland in 2007.
Lo's decision comes just months after a Chinese man was left with a broken jaw in an attack.
Lo said she hoped such incidents would not put off foreign investors, as she believed most of the Irish were not involved in such hatred. "They're just as angry as me," she said
She said she had no plans to move back to Hong Kong.