Hyon Song-Wol Execution: Was Kim Jong-un's Lover's Death Staged?

The girlfriend of South Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been seen on TV, nine months after she was said to have been brutally executed.

Hyon Song-wol was sent to death for secretly filming her sex sessions with Jong-un in a high-end hotel. May of the videos resurfaced in China.

The pop star and other members of North Korea's most famous music groups were arrested fro violating pornography laws in the country.

On August 20, without a trial, they were marched in front of a firing squad and gunned down, as ordered directly by the South Korean leader.

However, there is growing speculation that the execution may have been staged, after the Korean singer was recently seen on TV, delivering a speech at a national art workers rally in Pyongyang.

According to the Herald Sun, during her speech, the Moranbong band member thanked her former lover for his leadership while pledging to work harder to 'stoke up the flame for art and creative work.'

Hyon and Kim Jong-un had known each other since they were teenagers, long before the 30-year-old became supreme leader in 2011.

The couple were reportedly in a relationship, but Kim's late father, dictator Kim Jong-il, disapproved of the singer and ordered it to end.

Hyon went on to marry a soldier while Kim is married to another singer, Ri Sol-ju who was also a member of the Unhasu Orchestra.

Rumours circulated that Kim continued to secretly see Hyon, and later was compelled to demand her execution at the insistence of his wife.

With Hyon Song-wol appearing to have come back from the dead, it seems the dictator may well have spared his former love.