Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister was spotted in Russia today as part of a North Korean entourage attending his summit with fellow dictator Vladimir Putin.
Kim Yo-jong, the youngest child of North Korea’s second supreme leader Kim Jong Il, was photographed with other DPRK officials arriving at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome after traveling with Kim by train from Pyongyang.
Yo-jong is a senior politician and diplomat in the isolated country and serves as deputy department head of the Public Relations and Information Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).
However, some analysts consider her a possible successor to Kim, the country’s supreme leader and WPK general secretary. She has developed a fearsome reputation over the years and is even considered by some to be the true power behind Kim.
In the past, Yo-jong – believed to be 35 years old – has played a prominent role in supporting her brother’s summit meetings, but has appeared only on the sidelines.
Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister was spotted in Russia today as part of the North Korean’s entourage as he attended a summit with fellow dictator Vladimir Putin
Kim Yo-jong, the youngest child of North Korea’s second supreme leader Kim Jong Il, is photographed with other DPRK officials arriving at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome after traveling with Kim (center) by train from Pyongyang to a meeting with Putin ( left) had traveled)
For example, in 2018, she was present in Singapore when Kim met with then-US President Donald Trump during negotiations that failed to end a nuclear standoff – and was seen passing documents to her brother.
When her brother met Trump again in 2019 for another historic summit in Vietnam, she was seen shyly peeking out from behind a wall.
She was also North Korea’s representative at the 2018 Winter Olympics, held in South Korea, and was pictured sitting with Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence.
In photos released by North Korea’s official press agency, she is often seen at official events, but always makes sure to walk several steps behind her brother.
Although she displays a modest, submissive demeanor, a book published earlier this year suggests that she is actually a ruthless political operator – and is now seen as something of a puppet master and a feared presence among officials.
According to U.S. academic Sung-Yoon Lee, whose book “The Sister” provided the first detailed look at Yo-jong, some officials in Pyongyang did not nickname her “bloodthirsty demon” and “devil woman” for nothing.
Yo-jong remained largely hidden from the public for decades during her childhood.
But the world first became aware of her in 2011 when she was spotted during the memorial service for her and Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il. She appeared at her brother’s side, leading groups of party officials who bowed their heads before her father’s coffin.
The following year, she was given the job of tour manager for her brother and received her first official mention in state media in 2014, before being appointed “senior official” of the WPK Central Committee that same year.
While her brother was undergoing medical treatment in October 2014, she is said to have taken on government duties for him and was appointed first deputy director of the party’s powerful propaganda and agitation department the following month.
The department is responsible for disseminating North Korean propaganda and is said to be the driving force behind the country’s development of her brother’s cult of personality, modeled on that of her grandfather.
Some analysts consider Yo-Jong a possible successor to Kim, the country’s current supreme leader and WPK general secretary. She has developed a fearsome reputation over the years and is even considered by some to be the true power behind Kim
In 2017, a North Korean diplomat said she organized all major public events in the country and encouraged her brother to present himself as a “man of the people.”
In January of this year, their actions caught the attention of the United States when the Treasury Department placed them on the list of Specially Designated Nationals in response to human rights abuses in North Korea.
And in October, she was appointed a deputy member of the DPRK Politburo, the ruling party’s highest decision-making body between Central Committee meetings.
A year later, she traveled to South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympics, the first time a member of the ruling Kim dynasty had visited the country, and was part of her brother’s team at the historic summit with Trump in Singapore.
Commentators speculated that her rise to power in previous years was part of a push to replace his father’s aging allies with younger officials.
Although she was demoted from some positions in 2019 and 2020, analysts say her political influence over the government has remained unchanged.
Her stocks rose abroad in 2020 amid rumors about her brother’s health, with some suspecting her as a possible successor in the event of Kim’s death. Such rumors only increased in August of the same year, when it became known that the dictator was in a coma.
And a year later – after Kim’s apparent recovery – she was appointed to the country’s most powerful body, the State Affairs Commission.
Since then, says Sung-Yoon Lee, she has had “the ultimate power of the cruel dictator; the power to play God and decide who lives and who is killed” – and in her brother’s eyes she is considered “untouchable”.
According to Lee, rumors of Yo-jong’s “purging and killing compulsion” soon spread so much that high-ranking officials gasped in her presence.
When she approached them, they looked away or stared at the ground.
Ignoring her is apparently far safer than trying to win her praise – because “just being recognized by her could, in due course, lead to one’s fall from grace and a brush with death,” the scientist writes .
In April last year, the First Sister dropped her kindness and warned South Korea that if its military “violates even an inch of our territory, our nuclear forces will inevitably have to do their duty… and a terrible attack will be launched.” .
The South Korean army, she added, “will suffer a miserable fate bordering on complete destruction.” She has also made similar threats to the White House.
The youngest child of former North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il is said to be 35 years old and is said to be a ruthless political operator who seeks to succeed his brother Kim Jong-un (pictured together in 2018) and who is most valued by her father capable of his descendants
Yo-jong was one of many North Korean officials who traveled to Russia.
She was joined by senior military commanders, defense industry officials and other diplomats, signaling a potentially defense-heavy agenda for meetings with Russian President Putin, who continues to face difficulties with his invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea did not name the members of the delegation, but analysts identified several of the other key figures who appear to be accompanying Kim in photos released by state media on Tuesday.
Ri Pyong Chol, deputy chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party’s powerful Central Military Commission and marshal of the army, the country’s highest military rank, was seen waving alongside Kim on the train.
Ri was in charge of North Korea’s defense industry, including its nuclear and missile programs, and traveled to Russia in 2011 with Kim’s late father, Kim Jong Il.
Other delegates included Marshal Pak Jong Chon, the new chief of the party’s military-political leadership; Pak Thae Song, party secretary and chairman of a national space science and technology committee involved in a spy satellite program; and Jo Chun Ryong, director of the munitions industry department, who assisted Kim on his recent visits to a munitions factory and a missile plant.
Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the Stimson Center in Washington, said participants suggested that Kim and Putin would focus primarily on defense and security cooperation, including a possible munitions purchase agreement led by Jo, to strengthen Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
Madden said Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam also made the trip to Russia, although his face was not clearly visible in the photos.
Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui also shook hands with other officials in a reception line at the train station.
Kim Jong-Il (left) presents documents to her brother (second from left) during a summit between Kim Jong Un and then US President Donald Trump (second from right) in Singapore in 2018
A longtime nuclear negotiator and experienced diplomat, Choe was instrumental in Kim’s summit with Trump and was promoted to the current position last year after a brief demotion following the failed Vietnam summit in 2019.
Some officials in charge of economic affairs also appear to be accompanying Kim, raising the possibility that he and Putin could discuss economic cooperation and food aid in exchange for weapons.
They include O Su Yong, a party secretary and director of the economic department; Pak Hun, Deputy Prime Minister of the Cabinet in charge of Construction; and Han Kwang Sang, head of the party’s light industry department.
A Seoul Unification Ministry official in charge of inter-Korean affairs said Kim and Putin could explore options for sending North Korean workers back to Russia, which is banned under U.N. Security Council sanctions.