North Korea is living at a time of political reorganization and the Kim family is taking the opportunity to consolidate its power a little more. Kim Yo-jong, sister and advisor to leader Kim Jong-un, has been appointed to the country’s highest executive body, the official KCNA news agency said on Thursday.
She was promoted to member of the State Affairs Committee, in a series of changes approved by the Supreme People’s Assembly, with parliament serving as the registration chamber of the executive. The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Thursday published portraits of the eight new members, Kim Yo-jong standing out from the crowd as the only woman and by her youth.
Towards the succession of his brother?
No less than nine members of the commission were dismissed from their posts, including a vice-chairman, Pak Pong Ju and diplomat Choe Son Hui, one of the few women to hold a high position in North Korea’s hierarchy, and who played a key role in the negotiations with the United States.
Kim Yo-jong has often been seen close to her brother, with whom she attended school in Switzerland, especially during summits with then-US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Its exact political role has long been the subject of speculation. She is sometimes given as a possible successor to her brother, which would make her the first female leader of this socially conservative country.
She was also noticed by aggressive statements against Washington or Seoul, in particular upstream of the destruction by Pyongyang of the liaison office on the north side of the border, built and financed by the South.
The significance of these statements, however, remained uncertain given her relatively low position as deputy department director in the Workers’ Party Central Committee, and she herself sometimes specified that she was speaking on her own behalf. The 34-year-old’s official rank has fluctuated over time, but her new post on the State Affairs Commission is by far the most senior.