She was formerly a featured vocalist for the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble in the early 2000s,[2] a pop group which found fame in North Korea in the late 1980s and 1990s.

The accompanying music video stars Hyon in the role of "the heroine, dashing around a sparkling factory with a beatific smile, distributing bobbins and collecting swatches of cloth at top speed.

[3] Hyon disappeared from public view in 2006 when, according to reports in the Japanese media, she married a North Korean army officer with whom she had a child.

South Korean government sources told the media that Hyon and Kim Jong Un had been romantically involved in the early 2000s after he returned to North Korea from his studies at a public school in Switzerland.

[6] On 16 November 2023, The Korea Times published an article in which Choe Su-yong, a former official at the National Intelligence Service (NIS), alleges that Hyon is the mother of Kim Jong Un's eldest child.

[7] On 29 August 2013, South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo reported that Hyon had been executed by firing squad on the orders of Kim Jong Un along with eleven other performers, including violinist Mun Kyong-jin, both of whom had allegedly made illegal pornographic videos.

[19] Hyon's visibility in North Korean politics increased in 2020, when she made multiple appearances, including her inspection of typhoon-ravaged areas with Kim Jong Un, in their country.