Tag: Kim Yo-jong

Is it just me or does Kim Jong-un sister, Kim Yo-jong have the smuggest smile I have ever seen?  Here is a picture of her arriving at the airport:

Kim Yong-nam (R), North Korea’s ceremonial head of state, and Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the North’s top leader Kim Jong-un, walk into a reception room at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, on Feb. 9, 2018. The two are members of the North’s high-level government delegation that came to the South on the same day for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. (Yonhap)

Here she is at the welcome reception:

Kim Yo-jong lightly smiles during the welcoming reception hosted by South Korean unification minister at Incheon International Airport’s VIP reception room, Friday. / Yonhap

Here she is sitting next to US Vice President Pence at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.  This was probably a pretty awkward moment for everyone involved:

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence attends the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Games at PyeongChang Olympic Stadium in the host town of PyeongChang, east of Seoul, on Feb. 9, 2018. Seated behind Pence are Kim Yo-jong (R), the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and Kim Yong-nam, the North’s ceremonial head of state. (Yonhap)

It is pretty clear that the Kim regime is using the Winter Olympics to set a precedent for other countries to point to in order violate United Nations sanctions:

Both Kim Yo-jung and Choe Hwi are sanctioned by the United States for human rights abuses. Kim because she is “part of the agency in North Korea who’s responsible for propaganda, for censorship, controlling information so that the people of the country do not know about the rest of the world,” says the Treasury Department. Choe is subject to United Nations sanctions, as well, which actually bar him from leaving his country.

Choe is “First Vice Director of the Workers’ Party of Korea Propaganda and Agitation Department, which controls all Democratic People’s Republic of Korea media and is used by the government to control the public,” the United Nations says. The South Korean government is reportedly trying to get an exemption to the travel ban for the Olympics from the UN Security Council.  [Weekly Standard]

You can read more at the link.

I guess Kim Jong-un wanted his sister to personally attend the Winter Olympics and relay his extortion demands to the ROK government:

Kim Jong-un’s dear sister, Kim Yo-jong, is set to become the first member of North Korea’s ruling dynasty to set foot in the rival South this week.

The Unification Ministry in Seoul announced Wednesday that Kim Yo-jong, presumed to be aged about 30, will be part of a high-ranking government delegation attending the Winter Olympic opening ceremony slated for Friday.

The team will be led by Kim Yong-nam, the nominal head of state. Kim Yo-jong is widely believed to be powerful and close enough to the leader to directly represent his views.

Kim’s visit could further boost the reconciliatory mood between the Koreas. Seoul wants to pave the way for the restoration of relations and possibly to talks for the denuclearization of the North.

Kim’s high status in the North Korean leadership and close blood tie with the leader raised expectations that she may serve as the reclusive brother’s representative to the South Korean government.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

The speculation is the Kim Jong-un will send a high ranking political official along with sports officials to the Winter Olympics:

A North Korean delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics could be led by Kim Yo-jong or by Choe Ryong-hae, the second-most powerful person in the North.

During his personally delivered New Year’s address, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his hope that the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics would be a success and declared his willingness to take the necessary measures, such as sending a delegation to South Korea. The delegation that Kim mentioned would presumably include International Olympic Committee member Jang Ung, National Sports Guidance Committee chairman (NSGC) Choe Hwi and Minister of Sports Kim Il-guk.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link, but if he sends his sister to South Korea I think that is a sign that Kim Jong-un is really pushing his charm offensive on South Korea to get concessions after an extended period of provocations.  Having his sister attend the games would give North Korea a softer touch internationally with all the cameras on her instead of the sternly faced old men that usually attend these events.

Shown is a file photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s younger sister, Yo-jong. She was elected as an alternate member of the Political Bureau of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) at the party’s central committee meeting in Pyongyang on Oct. 7, 2017.  (Yonhap)

Since Kim Jong-un has come to power Choe Ryong-hae has been his point man for handling various foreign visits such as with China, with Russia, and even attending the Rio Summer Olympics.  His loyalty has now been rewarded with a promotion:

Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling party and known to be one of the closest aides to leader Kim Jong-un, has been picked as a member of the party’s powerful military commission, the North’s state-run media reported Sunday.

Choe, 67, was elected to the Central Military Commission of the North’s Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) during the second plenum of its seventh central committee Saturday in Pyongyang, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Choe is currently one of five standing committee members of WPK’s politburo — which also includes Kim Jong-un, President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly Kim Yong-nam and Hwang Pyong-so, director of the general political bureau of North Korea’s armed forces.

He was once believed to have fallen out of Kim’s favor and punished for mishandling a hydro power plant project in November 2015 but has apparently returned to the party leadership.

The KCNA added that Choe was also appointed a director at the party’s central committee without specifying which division or branch he would head. Saturday’s reshuffle raised the number of Choe’s official roles in the party to eight in total.  [Yonhap]

When Choe fell out of favor he was sent for reeducation at the Kim Il Sung Higher Party School.  South Korean intelligence predicted this was just a minor setback and he would make a political comeback which ended up being accurate.  So why is Choe Ryong-hae so important to Kim Jong-un?  There have been reports that his son is married to Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong.  If so having Choe as a regime inner circle figure makes sense because the inner circle is traditionally limited mostly to the Kim family.

Speaking of Kim Jong-un’s sister, she received a promotion as well:

In the reshuffle, conducted ahead of the founding anniversary of the party which falls on Oct. 10, Kim’s younger sister, Yo-jong, has also been elected as an alternate member of the WPK central committee’s Political Bureau, according to the report.

Yo-jong, 30, was first elected a member of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, in March 2014 and then a member of WPK’s central committee in May last year. She is believed to have been educated in Switzerland along with her brother Kim Jong-un.

All these promotions are showing is that Kim Jong-un is continuing to solidify has political power base with family members he trusts that will stay loyal to him.

The real question is why isn’t she already sanctioned considering how she is a key regime figure?:

The South Korean government is considering blacklisting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister. The unification ministry said on Monday, 7 November, that it was “carefully” reviewing adding Kim Yo-jong to its list of unilateral sanctions imposed against the reclusive state, following its fifth nuclear test in September.

Seoul has already blacklisted many Pyongyang officials after the country engaged in frequent missile tests earlier in the year, in addition to a nuclear test in January. However, the North Korean leader and his younger sister were not in the list, Yonhap news agency reported.  [IB Times]

You can read more at the link.

Some of you ROK Heads out there still have a chance of marrying Kim Jong-un’s sister if you are interested.  It also appears that the ubiquitous “car accident” continues to be a problem for regime figures in North Korea:

Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a central committee member of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), is not married, a high-level North Korean official-turned-defector said.

The Voice of America (VOA) reported Thursday that the 29-year-old sister Kim has yet to tie the knot, citing its interview with the anonymous defector, whom it reported had defected to the South last year with his father, also a senior member of the North Korean government.

A Unification Ministry official said the government wouldn’t confirm the veracity of the report.

The VOA’s report on Kim Yo-jong’s single life came after many reports by South Korean media that she was married to the son of Choe Ryong-hae, who returned to the power circle during the recent seventh congress with his entry into the five-member presidium of the political bureau of the WPK’s central committee.

The defector, who reportedly had worked for the North’s coal export business with China, said Choe’s son had actually died in a car accident in January 2013.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

The rumor mill is circulating that Kim Jong-un is going to use his big political convention this week to promote his younger sister Kim Yo-jong to a higher level within the government.  It makes sense for him considering she is trusted family and is female, thus no threat to replace him in male dominated North Korea:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may promote his youngest sister to a ministerial-level post as he moves to consolidate power during the ruling party congress that begins Friday, experts say.

The 7th Workers’ Party Congress — the first in 36 years — is expected to last three days, It comes against the backdrop of rising international tensions after the North staged its fourth nuclear test in early January, followed by a long-range rocket launch and other attempted missile tests despite harsh new U.N. sanctions.

Kim has given little hint of what he plans for the congress. But the 33-year-old leader is expected to use the chance to put his stamp on power and extinguish doubts about his lack of experience and military credentials after inheriting power from his father, who died of a heart attack in late 2011.

North Korea watchers say one possibiluty would be promoting his youngest sister, Kim Yo Jong, who is one of his closest confidantes.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Bloomberg has an article published that looks at the importance of the wife and sister of Kim Jong-un:

One sports a Christian Dior handbag and favors Western clothes. The other carries a notebook and wears dark uniforms. These fashion opposites are the two most influential women in North Korea.

While Kim Jong Un’s wife Ri Sol Ju and younger sister Kim Yo Jong are currently allies in sustaining one of the world’s most reclusive leaders, their overlapping influence makes them potential rivals in a regime where family ties aren’t strong enough to protect against Kim’s penchant for purges.

These women of Pyongyang offer insight to an opaque regime that, while struggling to feed its people, is capable of maintaining 1.2 million men under arms and threatening neighbors with nuclear annihilation. Ri commands a growing following among the wives of North Korean elite while Kim Yo Jong now holds a senior position in the ruling Workers’ Party and serves as an adviser to her brother.

“Uneasiness is inevitable in a relationship like this,” Kang Myong Do, a son-in-law of North Korea’s former Prime Minister, Kang Song San, said by phone. “The wife wouldn’t like it if her husband got too close to his sister; the sister wouldn’t like it if her brother got too close to his wife.”

The sister would try to oust Ri if the first lady_ a “rag-tag commoner” compared to Kim Yo Jong — sought political power beyond the role of burnishing her husband’s public image, said Kang, who now teaches North Korean studies at Kyungmin University near Seoul.

Kim Yo Jong chooses to remain in her brother’s shadow at public events, while Ri locks arms with Kim Jong Un. In a photo released Jan. 21 by the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper, Kim Yo Jong hides behind a pole as she watches the back of her brother speaking to people at a shoe factory.

Still, Kim Yo Jong “has a lot of control over who has access to her brother, what they say to him, what documents they hand over — in short, she is a combination gatekeeper and traffic cop,” said Michael Madden, editor of the North Korea Leadership Watch blog.  [Bloomberg]

You can read more at the link, but for all we know Ri Sol-ju and Kim Yo-jong could be best friends and thus no potential of power struggle between the two. I think it is pretty clear that Ri Sol-ju is there soften Kim’s public image while Kim Yo-jong is a person he trusts who takes care of things behind the scenes.