The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is taking a leading role in a new, more hardline pressure campaign against South Korea, highlighting what analysts say is a substantive policy role that goes beyond being her brother’s assistant.
Believed to be in her early 30s, Kim Yo-jong is the only close relative of the North Korean leader to play a public role in politics.
During the 2018-2019 flurry of international diplomacy, Kim Yo-jong garnered global attention by leading a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Photo: Reuters
Later, she was often seen dashing about to make sure everything went well for her elder brother.
This year she has taken on a more public policy role, cementing her status as an influential political player in her own right.
“Prior to this, Kim Yo-jong was portrayed in state media as Kim Jong-un’s sister, his protocol officer, or one of his accompanying officials,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a former North Korea open source intelligence analyst in the US government. “Now, North Koreans know for sure there is more to her than that.”
She has worked behind the scenes in the North’s propaganda agencies, a role that led the US to add her to a list of sanctioned senior officials in 2017 due to human rights abuses and censorship.
In March, state media carried the first ever statement by her, in which she criticized South Korean authorities.
That was followed by several more, including a response to comments by US President Donald Trump, and last week, a warning that the North would cut communications with the South.
Lee said Kim Yo-jong ‘s statements have a unique style, showcasing her wit and underscoring her powerful position.
“In addition to the harsh words and sarcasm, they can be bitingly witty in ways that the other statements are not,” Lee said. “She seems to have more leeway in crafting her statements, which of course is not surprising.”
When state media on Tuesday announced that the hotlines between North and South Korea would be severed, they said Kim Yo-jong and a longtime hardliner, Kim Yong-chol, championed the decision at a meeting.
This rare explanation of a policymaking process portrayed Kim Yo-jong as “a very substantive person,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank.
He said this new portrayal of Kim Yo-jong in state media might be a subtle dig at international analysts who have cast doubts on her ability to wield influence in the North’s male-dominated society.
“They clearly have high hopes and expectations for her,” he said. “Not necessarily the next leader, but something of a kingmaker nonetheless.”
In other developments, the South Korean Ministry of Unification yesterday said that the government would press charges against two activist groups that have been floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets and bottles filled with rice to the North.
Ministry spokesman Yoh Sang-key told reporters the two organizations to be charged had “created tensions between the South and North, and brought danger to the lives and safety of [South Korean] residents in border areas.”
The two groups to be charged are Fighters for a Free North Korea, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, which has floated balloons across the border for years, and Keun Saem, which is led by his brother, Park Jung-oh.
Additional reporting by AP
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