Seoul: Sister, Advisor, and now the best official: Kim Yo Jong’s latest promotion, sibling to North Korean leader, strengthens his position in Pyongyang’s power circle, analysts said.
He had long been among the nearest lieutenants of Kim Jong UN and one of the most influential women in the isolated regime, and on Thursday it was officially made when the state media announced that he had been crowned to the State Affairs Commission (SAC), the government’s top government .
This is a big step from its relatively junior’s position as deputy director of the department in the powerful party, and it will likely increase speculation that he can be a long candidate to replace his brother – whose health is a regular rumor topic – in terms of his death.
Such transitions will give the first social leader of a socially conservative, but analysts warn him will oppose the Convention.
“Kim Jong UN has raised Kim Yo Jong’s status,” said Shin Beom-Chul, a researcher at the Korean research institute for the national strategy.
Born in 1988, according to the Seoul Unification Ministry, Yo Jong is one of three children born to the predecessor of Kim Kim Jong Il and the third partner known, the former Ko Yong Hui dancer.
He was educated in Switzerland with his brothers and rose quickly to the ranking as soon as he inherited power after the death of their father in 2011.
His existence was almost unknown to the wider world to his funeral, when he was seen next to the television stand right behind Kim Jong UN, looks vibrant and ash-faced.
Instead the smile that cannot be understood played on his lips when he rode an escalator at Incheon airport as his brother’s envoy to the 2018 Winter Olympics, became the first member of the powerful dynasty in the north to set the foot south since the Korean War.
Every detail of his visit was watched carefully, from the clothes he was wearing to the bag he was carrying and even his handwriting.
In accordance with the confidentiality covering North Korean leaders, it is not known whether he is married.
Recently he was often seen on his brother, including at its peak with the leader of the South Jae-in and then US President Donald Trump: on their 60-hour train trip to Hanoi for a meeting which then collapsed, he was seen carrying Kim Ashtray when he stepped for a cigarette break.
He has also published a statement regularly in his own name to stirring Washington or Seoul vitriolics, especially exploring the north which blew the connecting office on the side of the border last year that the South had built and paid.
There is a “no doubt” that Kim Jong UN has a very close relationship with his sister, said Moo-jin from the North Korean study in Seoul.
“Jong Un and Yo Jong spent many of their lonely childhood abroad – I think this is when they develop something similar to comradeship, above siblings,” he told AFP.
Leadership has always been a family affair in the north and besides her brother, Kim Yo Jong is now the highest member of “Paektu Bloodline” – the northern term for the grandfather of Kim Il Sung’s sister and his descendants, who have led the nuclear armed country since the foundation.
When Kim Jong UN disappeared from public view for several weeks ago, he triggered speculation of fever for his health and who might replace him.
Analysts said the depiction of Kim Yo Jong in government media could be intended to increase its credibility with the North Korean military and other eagles.
But when the newspaper Rodong Sinmun officially brought the portraits of eight new bags appointed on Thursday, he prominted among them both as the only woman and for his youth.
Given the North Korean social and political structure, said Park Won-Gon, a North Korean study professor at the University of Ehha Womans, will be “very difficult” for Kim to appoint his sister as his successor, “Even though he is a member.
Paektu lineage”.