Tag: Kim Yo-jong

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.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is shown in the left circle while taking a photo at a precision machine factory in Pyongyang. Kim’s younger sister, Yo-jong, is seen in the right circle. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency reported it on Jan. 16, 2015, without saying when the visit was made. (KCNA-Yonhap)

Shown is Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, accompanying the leader to an orphanage in Pyongyang on Jan. 1, 2015. She wears a finger ring amid speculation she recently married a son of Choe Ryong-hae, a senior secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party seen as the North’s second-most powerful man. (Yonhap)

It looks like Kim Jong-un may still be having problems with his feet:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is experiencing a relapse of his recent health problems, South Korean government officials said Monday.

According to the Ministry of Unification, Kim was limping severely in a video clip recently aired by the state-run Korean Central TV. He was limping particularly painfully at an event with female pilots that took place at the end of last month. The Rodong Shinmun, the Workers’ Party’s newspaper, reported Kim’s visit to the air base on Nov. 28 with photos, but no video was aired until Sunday afternoon.

The 30-year-old ruler of the North developed problems with his leg last spring. After his condition deteriorated, he withdrew from public activities for 40 days.

South Korean intelligence authorities have confirmed that Kim received ankle surgery by visiting French, Chinese and Russian doctors. The sources said there was a high possibility of a relapse after Kim quickly resumed his public activities.

Meanwhile, intelligence officials said Kim Yo-jong, the 25-year-old younger sister of the North’s ruler, has quickly risen in Pyongyang’s inner circle, possibly being groomed to succeed her brother in case of an emergency.

At the end of last month, Pyongyang revealed that she is a deputy director of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee. It was the first time the North revealed her official title in a media report, although it did not say which department of the party she belongs to.

She is the youngest deputy director of the Workers’ Party in the history of North Korea. Her father Kim Jong-il became the deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department in 1970 when he was 28. Her once-powerful aunt Kim Kyong-hui became the deputy director of the International Department when she was 30.

North Korea observers note that it took only three years for the youngest daughter of Kim Jong-il, who shed tears at her father’s funeral, to rise to a powerful position in Pyongyang’s leadership.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but it would probably be tough for all the long term leadership and military generals to accept such a young female leader even if she is part of the Kim family.  It would be interesting to see how this would play out if something did happen to Kim Jong-un.