What Kim's 'mystery woman' says about North Korea

Hong Kong (CNN) -- So little is about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the identity of a woman seen by his side more than one official engagement has a flurry of speculation worldwide.

Was the slim woman the sharp black suit his sister, wife or lover?

No one to know, and Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in South Korea, expert and author of a number of books North Korea, said it was unlikely speculators would ever find .

"Everything related Kim Jong Il's children is deadly secret. No sane North Korean knows it would this out for very special reasons," Lankov said.

The mystery woman accompanied the young leader a Pyongyang theater on Friday night to a performance of North Korea's Moranbong band. The display included a cast Disney characters, attracting the attention of The Walt Disney Company, issued a statement Tuesday saying it not authorized use.

Away the stage, the young woman's presence raised questions about the purpose of the performance and the message the leadership intending to convey.

A statement by the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Saturday no mention of either the Disney characters or the woman was seen in official photos distributed worldwide standing and clapping the end of the performance.

Friday's outing wasn't only high-profile appearance at the North Korean leaders' .

The same woman was seen state TV Sunday walking a few paces Kim as he toured Kumsusan Palace in Pyongyang, then standing attention at Kim's side as they and top military officials tribute to his grandfather Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founding , on the anniversary of death.

The presence a female companion the leader during an official engagement was unusual, Lankov said, and could be of a campaign to present Kim as "much approachable, human- and soft on people" than his father, Kim Jong Il.

"He travels more than his father and even his grandfather. He likes to hug everybody, physically . In this regard it's probably he decided it might be a good idea to hint that he have a wife," Lankov added.

Definitely a wife, Lankov stressed, because public appearance of a leader's girlfriend or lover would unthinkable. Even the wives of his father and grandfather stayed firmly in the shadows their decades in power.

"When his grandfather's first wife, if you the founding mother of the dynasty, was alive, her name was , never mentioned in media. Her existence was never even hinted ," Lankov said.

There was no reference Kim Il Sung's first wife her death and for many years there was no mention all of his second wife, Lankov added. "It 15 years before the existence of his wife, his second wife, was ever mentioned press," and even then it was passing, he said.

In South Korea, the image of Kim's companion made newspaper . A report in South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo said the woman "seemed to " Kim Jung Un's sister, Kim Yeo Jung.

"Born in 1987, Yeo-jong is in her mid-20s. She apparently went to a school Switzerland along with Jong-un in 1990s," the newspaper's website said. Her brother Kim to power in December 2011 after the death of father, who led the impoverished country 17 years.

Very little was known Kim when he was granted the title of supreme ; his age is still a source of speculation, it's thought he's in his late twenties.

"Three years ago the only we knew about him was existence," Lankov said. "Until, say 2010, as as I remember we didn't even know how his name was spelt in Korean."

Lankov said it was too to say whether the tweaks to Kim's public image indicate change for the country.

"This to be the beginning of some change, but what it's too early to say. It might just be a minor change style. It might be something more consequential, I don't know. I would not speculate now," he said.


Adapted from: CNN, July 10, 2012.