Kim Yo Jong is the North Korean dictator’s only close relative with a public role in politics. She said her country’s nuclear forces would “annihilate” the South Korean military if it launched a pre-emptive strike against the regime
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong is a de facto second-in-command. AFP
North Korea will use its nuclear weapons to “eliminate” South Korea’s army in the event they launch a pre-emptive strike. The warning did not come from the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but from his sister, whose profile continues to rise in the country.
Kim Yo Jong’s warning was her second angry retort in three days to comments made by South Korea’s defence chief Suh Wook last week. They come as North Korea has resumed its sanctions-breaking weapons tests with an unprecedented blitz this year, last month firing its first intercontinental ballistic missile at full range since 2017.
Suh had said Friday that South Korea’s military had missiles with “the ability to accurately and quickly hit any target in North Korea when there are clear signs of North’s missile launch”, reports AFP.
In response, Kim Yo Jong said it was a “very big mistake” for “lunatic” Suh to have discussed a pre-emptive strike against a nuclear power, according to the report in KCNA. “In case South Korea opts for a military confrontation with us, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty,” said Kim Yo Jong.
But who is Kim Yo Jong? And what’s her role in the world’s most isolated nation?
Kim Yo Jong, who is around 33 years old, is believed to be serving as Kim Jong Un’s “de facto second-in-command”, according to South Korea’s intelligence agency. She is now dubbed North Korea’s most powerful woman after being promoted last September to the country’s top policy-making body.
She is responsible for the hermit nation’s relations with the United States and South Korea.
Kim Yo Jong’s rise to prominence
Kim Yo Jong was rarely seen in public until 2010 when she was first photographed attending a party conference. She then made regular appearances with her father Kim Jong Il and was part of his entourage.
She became the first member of the Kim dynasty to visit South Korea in an official capacity. She attended the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and even held meetings with then-South Korean president Moon Jae-in. Her visit to the neighbouring nation dominated television coverage in North Korea, as she posed for photographs with then-US vice president Mike Pence and the former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Kim Yo Jong is responsible for the isolated nation’s relations with South Korea. South Korean Unification Ministry/AFP
It was after her Winter Olympic appearance that she continued to be part of North Korea’s diplomatic delegations. She accompanied her brother to a meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2018 and attended three face-to-face meetings with former US president Donald Trump in Vietnam in 2019. While she might be remembered for holding an ashtray for the North Korean leader at a railway station on his journey, she reportedly played the role of his advisor and confidante.
Kim Yo Jong is rumoured to be the braGuardianins behind her brother’s carefully constructed public image, at home and abroad. In return, she enjoys the absolute confidence of her brother, reports.
The family dynamics
Kim Yo Jong is the dictator’s only close relative with a public role in politics. She is believed to be four years younger than her brother, but there is little information about her childhood and even her date of birth is clouded in uncertainty.
She is the youngest child of Kim Jong Il and Ko Yong Hui, who is originally from Japan. She attended the same primary school as her brother in Berne, Switzerland. The siblings reportedly lived in a private home, attended to by staff and watched over by bodyguards, according to North Korea Leadership Watch.
After schooling, she completed her graduation with a computer science degree from Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, and in 2007, she started playing a junior role in the party, Guardian reports.
She is believed to be married to Choe Song, the younger son of the Korean Workers’ Party secretary, Choe Ryong Hae.
Is she next in line to Kim Jong Un?
Kim Jong Un is not very different from her brother. She has been placed on a blacklist for “severe human rights abuses” by the United States. And though she made public appearances, her first public statement condemning the South as a “frightened dog barking” came in March 2020.
“It is revealing that Kim Jong Un permitted her to write and announce a scathing statement about South Korea in such a personal tone,” Youngshik Bong, a research fellow at Yonsei University’s Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul, told Guardian. “He is clearly ready to allow his sister to become his alter ego.”
While the sister enjoys power, she has not necessarily been designated the North Korean leader’s successor.
When rumours and speculation arose in April 2020 about Kim Jong Un’s health, his sister was seen as a possible placeholder to take over the family dynasty until one of Kim’s children is old enough, reports Al Jazeera.
With inputs from agencies
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