Tag: Kim Yo-jong

Kim Yo-jong had previously been in a cabinet level role five years ago and now she is back in a similar position. Analysts believe this is to solidify Kim family stewardship of the government. My guess is that she may have young kids she wanted to make sure she spent time with and now 5 years later she is ready once again for a more senior position:

Kim Yo-jong, the influential younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has been promoted to department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, the North’s state media reported Tuesday — a move that elevates her to a ministerial rank and further consolidates her position within the inner circle of power in Pyongyang.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the decision followed an expanded plenary meeting of the Central Committee held a day earlier. Although the report did not specify which department Kim would lead, analysts said she was likely to take charge of the influential propaganda and agitation department, which oversees messaging, ideology and the personality cult surrounding the leadership. Kim previously served as a deputy director in that office and has long been seen as a key architect of the regime’s public statements and media strategy.

The reshuffle also restores Kim as an alternate member of the Politburo, the party’s top decision-making body. She had held a seat there until 2020, and her omission from the leadership roster unveiled at a party congress in January 2021 was widely interpreted by outside observers as either a temporary demotion or a recalibration of her portfolio rather than a genuine fall from favor.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

No matter how many times the Kim regime tells the Korean left no to engagement they will never believe they really mean it:

North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, late Tuesday dismissed prospects for improving inter-Korean relations, rejecting the South Korean government’s assessment that her earlier remarks left room for engagement and calling such expectations a “daydream.” 
  
“As far as Seoul’s various hope-filled wild dreams called ‘repair of DPRK-ROK relations’ are concerned, they all can never come true,” Kim said in an English-language statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “The present address of the DPRK-ROK relations can never change.” 
  
DPRK refers to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name, while ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official designation.  
  
Her remarks were widely seen as a reiteration of Pyongyang’s stance to maintain a severance of inter-Korean ties based on Kim Jong-un’s doctrine of “two hostile states,” which frames the two Koreas as separate and adversarial countries rather than counterparts in a divided nation.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime only seeks engagement to extract concessions which they don’t need right now because the Russians are providing for all their needs.

Kim Yo-jong is upset because the US-ROK militaries plan to conduct what is essentially a video game military exercise together:

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Sunday blasted a planned joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States, warning the “reckless muscle-flexing” would bring unfavorable consequences.

Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the North Korean ruling party’s Central Committee, issued the warning in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The allies are set to stage the Iron Mace tabletop military exercise from Monday to Friday at the U.S. Forces Korea headquarters at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, focusing on integrating Washington’s nuclear assets and Seoul’s conventional capabilities to deter North Korean threats.

Kim reiterated her criticism of the allies’ nuclear deterrence plan, saying North Korea would regard the exercise as a “display” and continuation of a confrontational stance by the “current rulers” if it is staged with their full understanding of the dangers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but she will be brought out to condemn every US-ROK exercise because the Kim regime thinks with the Lee administration in power they can get him to advocate for cancelling them for little or nothing in return.

It is interesting that Kim Yo-jong is coming out and saying that relations between the U.S. and North Korean leaders is “not bad”. It makes me think there is likely much communication going on behind the scenes:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Tuesday personal ties between the leaders of the North and the United States are “not bad,” while ruling out talks on Pyongyang’s denuclearization.

Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the ruling party’s Central Committee, made the remarks as U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed his intent to reengage with the North’s leader.

“I do not want to deny the fact that the personal relationship between the head of our state and the present U.S. president is not bad,” Kim said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“However, if the personal relations between the top leaders of the DPRK and the U.S. are to serve the purpose of denuclearization, it can be interpreted as nothing but a mockery of the other party,” she said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The tit-for-tat between the ROK and North Korea continues:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Sunday that South Korea will have to pay a “dear price” for sending propaganda leaflets across the border the previous day.

Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the central committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said “various kinds of political agitation leaflets and dirty things” were dropped by the South near the border and further inland.

“We strongly denounce the shameful and dirty acts of the ROK scum who committed the provocation of scattering anti-DPRK political and conspiratorial agitation things once again in disregard of our repeated warnings,” she said in a statement carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency, referring to South and North Korea by their formal names, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“There will be no house owner who hardly gets enraged at such dirty rubbish scattered in the clean yard, which even a mutt dislikes to touch,” she said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This would be the next logical step in escalation from North Korea. With that said they have already flown drones multiple times over South Korea in the past showing how hypocritical their claims against the ROK now are:

Inter-Korean tensions are escalating over propaganda leaflets, as North Korea threatened, Monday, to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to drop leaflets over Seoul. The North also reiterated its claim that the South Korean military recently sent leaflet-distributing drones into its territory.

“It would be interesting to see how they will bark if a drone appears in Seoul and scatters leaflets,” Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said in a statement via the North’s mouthpiece Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Noting a hypothetical situation, she said, “An unidentified drone appears over Seoul and scatters leaflets denouncing ‘the puppet Yoon,’” apparently referring to President Yoon Suk Yeol. “Our military, individual organizations, or any individual have not flown any drones, cannot confirm such actions, and do not consider it worth responding to.”

Her remarks appear to sarcastically criticize the South Korean military’s response to North Korea’s claims that the South sent a drone carrying anti-regime leaflets over Pyongyang earlier this month and that they found debris from a UAV of the same type operated by the South Korea’s military. In response to these claims, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, “We cannot verify (the claim), and the claim is not worth replying.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If anyone cares, Kim Yo-jong is out make nuclear threats again:

Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, vowed Tuesday to “continuously and limitlessly” bolster the North’s nuclear war deterrent against what it called U.S. threats, denouncing the arrival of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine in South Korea.

The remark came a day after the 7,800-ton USS Vermont entered a major naval base in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to replenish supplies and provide rest for crew members. 

“The DPRK’s nuclear war deterrent to cope with and contain various threats from outside is bound to be bolstered up both in quality and quantity continuously and limitlessly as the security of the state is constantly exposed to the U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail,” Kim said in a statement carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I suspect we will see North Korea launch their own loudspeaker broadcasts along with more trash attacks in the near future:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened Sunday to take “new responses” if South Korea keeps sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border and blasting loudspeaker broadcasts, calling it a “prelude to a very dangerous situation.”

The statement by Kim Yo-jong came after the South resumed propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts toward the North in retaliation against the North’s repeated sending of trash-filled balloons amid rising tensions in the inter-Korean border regions.

“Seoul’s politicians are continuing to create a new crisis environment … They are formalizing once again provocative behaviors by resuming loudspeaker provocations as a countermeasure to our challenging initiatives,” Kim said in the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim claimed that the North was going to stop sending the balloons early this week, but it ended up flying more in response to the anti-Pyongyang leafleting by North Korean defectors and activists in the South.

“Our counteraction (of sending balloons) was to end on the 9th, but the situation has changed … The loudspeaker broadcast provocation has finally begun in border areas. This is a prelude to a very dangerous situation,” she said.

“If South Korea chooses to engage in the leaflet-scattering and loudspeaker provocations across the border, without a doubt, they will witness our new response,” Kim said. Kim, however, did not specify what the new responses will be.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Anyone believe Kim Yo-jong’s claim:

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again denied Friday that her country has exported any weapons to Russia, as she labeled outside speculation on North Korea-Russian arms dealings as “the most absurd paradox.” The U.S., South Korea and others have steadfastly accused North Korea of supplying artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for advanced military technologies and economic aid.

Both North Korea and Russia have repeatedly dismissed that. Foreign experts believe North Korea’s recent series of artillery and short-range missile tests were meant to examine or advertise the weapons it was planning to sell to Russia. Kim Yo Jong called outside assessments on the North Korean-Russian dealings “the most absurd paradox which is not worth making any evaluation or interpretation.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.