North Korean leader Kim Jong-un raised the standing of his sister as a key player in the secretive state and bolstered his new foreign minister in a cadre shuffle that comes as he tries to fend off the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part emissary, part personal assistant, Kim Yo-jong was reinstated to her position as an alternate politburo member of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, state media said on Saturday.
The move returned her to the powerful decisionmaking body after she left the post in April last year and follows a series of roles since that included responding to overtures from US President Donald Trump.
Photo: EPA-EFE / KCNA
“Her media profile over the years suggests that her profile will continue to rise and that her role will continue to expand,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a former North Korea analyst with the US government.
North Korean Army Chief of Staff General Pak Jong-chon, former head of the army’s artillery division, was also named a full member of the politburo, while Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Son-gwon, a former army officer who once led talks with South Korea, was named an alternate member.
“Pak’s quick promotion and Ri’s lower position in the Political Bureau seem to reflect Kim Jong-un’s policy priorities — national defense, with an emphasis on artillery over diplomacy,” Lee said.
North Korea held two major events over the weekend, with Kim Jong-un overseeing a meeting of the politburo on Saturday addressing the “danger” of the coronavirus pandemic. Its rubber-stamp parliament met on Sunday to implement the national budget.
While North Korea claims it has seen no coronavirus infections, the pandemic has put new pressures on the regime, which could see its antiquated and underfunded medical system overwhelmed by an outbreak. Kim Jong-un brought his already isolated country to a near standstill by sealing the borders in January to stop the virus, which halted the trickle of legal trade and tourism.
Meanwhile, he has kept his weapons program churning, test-launching nine short-range ballistic missiles last month — a monthly record.
Kim Yo-jong was thrust into the global spotlight when she served as envoy to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and became the first member of the immediate ruling family to visit Seoul.
Last month, she provided the regime’s response to a letter from Trump, saying that her brother’s “very excellent” relationship with the US leader was not enough to offset broader differences between the two sides.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS