Kim Jong-un's older brother secretly attended an Eric Clapton concert in London in 2015, according to Reuters.
A North Korean government official used a cryptic, disposable email address to purchase four tickets for Kim Jong Chol to watch Clapton's show at London's Royal Albert Hall. Thae Yong Ho, a London-deputy ambassador for North Korea at the time, escorted Jong-chol around London and to the show, titled "Eric Clapton’s 70th Birthday Celebration."
"I realized, 'Ah! It must be Kim Jong-chol! In North Korea, who else would be interested but Kim Jong-chol?'" said Thae, who defected to South Korea in 2016.
Ho said Jong-chol talked very little about his life, saying he was only interested in "guitars and music."
Thae told Reuters he took Jong-chol to Denmark Street where he tried out various guitars in the instrument shops there.
"The shop owner didn't know it was Kim Jong-chol," Thae said.
"He let him play for 30 minutes. The shopkeepers of those guitar shops were amazed by his talent."
Jong-chol has been photographed attending Clapton's concerts in different countries, including Germany in 2006 and Singapore in 2011, but had not been seen in public since his father's death in 2011.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.