North Korea on Sunday angrily denied
reports that it had executed several state performers to cover up the
past of its first lady, calling the media accounts an "unpardonable"
crime.
The denial came a day after the North indefinitely
postponed reunions for families divided by the Korean War, citing South
Korean hostility, slander and provocation.
Sunday's denunciation
focused on several recent reports carried by the South's "reptile media"
aimed at "hurting the dignity" of supreme leader Kim Jong-Un.
In
particular it cited a Saturday report in Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper
-- picked up by South Korean
broadcasters and websites -- that several
members of the North's Unhasu Orchestra and other state music troupes
had been executed by firing squad for taping themselves having sex.
Ri Sol-Ju, Kim's wife, is a former member of the orchestra.
Asahi
said the rare execution of state performers, including a singer
rumoured to be Kim's ex-girlfriend, had been ordered to squash rumours
of Ri's decadent lifestyle while she was an entertainer.
It said
police had secretly recorded conversations between the entertainers who
said, "Ri Sol-Ju used to play around in the same manner as we did".
The source for the Asahi report was a "high-ranking North Korean government official who recently defected".
South
Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper had reported the alleged executions last
month, but there was no response from Pyongyang at the time.
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," KCNA said in a commentary.
"Those who commit such a hideous crime ... will have to pay a very high price," it warned.
Kim
Jong-Un's stylish wife has often been photographed accompanying him at
official events -- in a break from the past when the North's first
ladies were kept out of the limelight.
She was pictured wearing
stylish, expensive-looking outfits and on one occasion sported what
appeared to be a Christian Dior handbag, in a country plagued by chronic
poverty.
Inter-Korean relations had recently showed signs of
improving after months of heightened military tensions following the
North's third nuclear test in February.
The most visible step
forward was an agreement to open a jointly-run industrial estate that
was shut down when the tensions were at their peak.
But they hit a new stumbling block when Pyongyang abruptly postponed the family reunions scheduled to begin on Wednesday.