How Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-Jong has gone from brother’s lackey to ‘second most powerful person in North Korea’
THE younger sister of the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is one of the few people the infamous North Korean considers an ally.
Kim Yo-Jong came to the public eye in 2018, when she became the first Kim family member to visit neighbours South Korea.
She went as part of the Winter Olympics delegation, where Korea competed as a single country.
From then on she worked closely with her brother on his international visits to world leaders.
Most notably US President Donald Trump, China’s Xi Jinping, South Korea’s Moon Jae-in and recently went to meet Vladimir Putin with him.
Moving up quickly through senior roles meant she was seen as a potential successor to Kim Jong-un whenever he disappeared from the public eye.
When her brother was sick in 2014, she was reported to have taken over state duties for him.
Believed to be 35, Kim Yo-Jong is now the Deputy Department Director of the Publicity and Information Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
Ms Kim is believed to be so respected by the Supreme Leader because of her past role as vice-director of the propaganda and agitation department.
She was said to have managed all of his public appearances as well as acting as a political adviser and turning him into a cult like figure in the country, taking her from her brother’s lackey to someone he relies on.
As with many of North Korea’s rich and powerful, a lot of information isn’t available, but she is rumoured to be married to the son of Choe Ryong-hae, Kim Jong-un’s right hand man.
For a woman in North Korea her power is very rare and it’s her links to her brother that lets her be in the public eye.
She’s recently given several strong messages against the South and is the point-person on inter-Korean affairs, according to NK News.
Going as far as threatening to send troops to the inter-Korean border because of anti-government leaflets.
North Korea has been ruled by the Paektu bloodline since Kim Il-sung in 1972.
It isn’t known if current leader Kim Jong-un has children, meaning the second most powerful person in the country, his sister, could soon take on the role.
Fyodor Tertitskiy of Kookmin University in Seoul said: “Unless another member of the Kim family comes in charge, for her the things will be very simple.
“Either she takes the mantle of the Supreme Leader or loses all power and potentially her life as well.”
Reports say she had a sheltered childhood away from most of her family.
Once having a slight cold and being taken out of school and straight to the hospital.
Before 2018, she’d only been in the spotlight a few times, appearing at the state funeral of her father in 2011 and the election of her brother in 2014.
In 2014 she received her first official mention in the media and was named as a senior official of the Central Committee in the same year.