A photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister applauding him during a rare public event gives further weight to a claim that she has become a key part of his inner circle.
Kim Yo-jong was given a place on an elevated platform just five seats away from the tyrant during a party conference watched by hundreds in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.
Ms Kim, believed to 30, was in a row of all-male senior party officials as her brother addressed the room.
Kim Yo-jong was given a place on an elevated platform just five seats away from the tyrant during a party conference watched by hundreds in the North Korean capital Pyongyan
In October Kim Jong Un oversaw a major shakeup of North Korea’s government as he promoted dozens of close aides to positions of power. Among the new promotions was his 30-year-old sister, who was been elevated to a position within the powerful Central Committee
It is the latest sign of his younger sister’s rise in status in the regime. Only selected top officials are permitted to sit near the dictator at such events.
At the event, she was seated next to party vice-chairman, Choe Ryong-hae and Worker’s Party secretaries Kim Pyong-hae and O Su-yong, reported the South Korean Chosun Ilbo.
Alongside Kim Jong-un’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, Ms Kim is one of the two most visible women in North Korea.
In October Kim Jong Un oversaw a major shakeup of North Korea’s government as he promoted dozens of close aides to positions of power.
At the time, the disappearance of General Hwang Pyong-so sparked rumours that he may have been executed for alleged corruption.
Among the new promotions was his 30-year-old sister, who was been elevated to a position within the powerful Central Committee.
Ms Kim, believed to 30, was in a row of all-male senior party officials as her brother addressed the room at a Workman’s Party meeting
Kim’s sister’s seat placement is the latest sign of his younger sister’s rise in status in the regime. Only selected top officials are permitted to sit near the dictator at such events
The promotion marked a return to favour two years after she was fired as Kim’s propaganda chief due to a series of security blunders at rallies around the country.
On one occasion Kim was nearly hit in the face with a guitar by an over-enthusiastic musician as he toured a farm, while on a second occasion he was man-handled by fans at a concert.
Kim Yo-Jong’s new job will be as an alternative member of the Central Committee – the chief decision-making body over which Kim presides.
‘It shows that her portfolio and writ is far more substantive than previously believed and it is a further consolidation of the Kim family’s power,’ said Michael Madden, a North Korea expert at Johns Hopkins University’s 38 North website.
Kim made the announcement at the Korean Worker’s Party conference in Pyongyang, which took place ahead of the anniversary of the party’s founding.
His sister is the only one of Kim Jong-Un’s siblings to hold an official title.
In a family tree complicated by their father Kim Jong-Il’s various marriages and partnerships, she enjoys a special relationship with her brother in that they also share the same mother.
Like her brother, Yo-Jong was partly educated in Switzerland and her first explicit appearance in North Korea’s state media came in 2009 when she accompanied her father on a visit to an agricultural university
Attendants of the 5th Conference of Cell Chairpersons of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) hold a meeting to accept a pledge for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
‘They share a life-long bond and her promotion to the politburo means Kim Jong-Un has complete trust in her,’ Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said earlier this year.
‘She could be the one to take over from Kim in the event of his absence,’ Yang told AFP.
Like her brother, Yo-Jong was partly educated in Switzerland and her first explicit appearance in North Korea’s state media came in 2009 when she accompanied her father on a visit to an agricultural university.
She became a regular member of Kim Jong-Il’s entourage until his death in 2011 and featured prominently in official photos of the funeral, mourning alongside her brother.
Last week, Kim Jong-un used another conference to take aim at his enemies and boast about his nuclear capabilities.
Kim Yo-Jong’s new job will be as an alternative member of the Central Committee – the chief decision-making body over which Kim presides. She is pictured (left) with the dictator (right) in 2014
He said North Korea was now a ‘substantial nuclear threat to the US’ and warned that his rapidly developing nuclear force is ‘exerting big influence’ on the international community as he delivered a speech in Pyongyang.
Kim made the remarks a month after declaring his secretive state had completed its nuclear armament in the wake of a ballistic missile test.
It comes after his foreign ministry hit out at Trump’s ‘criminal’ new national security document calling it a ‘proclamation of aggression aimed at holding sway over the world’.
In the document, announced on Monday, Trump said Washington had to deal with the challenge posed by North Korea’s weapons programmes.
But in a statement released today, Pyongyang said: ‘This has fully revealed that ‘America first policy’ which the gang of Trump is crying out loudly about is nothing but the proclamation of aggression aimed at holding sway over the world according to its taste and at its own free will.’