If Kim Jong Un is considered the most powerful man in North Korea, then Kim Yo Jong is the most influential woman in North Korea.
Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's sister, became the main focus of mass media and social media during a 3-day visit to South Korea to attend the opening of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in and other officials.
The 30-year-old woman was sent by Kim Jong Un to meet President Moon and present Kim Jong Un's invitation to Moon to visit Pyongyang soon. Kim Yo Jong became the only member of North Korea's founding family and ruler who had been to South Korea since the Korean war ended in 1953.
Before flying to South Korea, Kim Yo Jong was appointed head of state security at the end of January 2018. Kim Jong Un put his sister in a position previously held by his uncle, General Jang Song-taek who was executed in 2013, as quoted by Chosun Ilbo, January 25, 2018.
By sitting in that position, showing Kim Yo Jong will get a promotion. And it turns out a month after the congress, she occupies the position of Head of State Security. In March 2014, Kim Yo Jong was named for the first time as a senior official of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers Party by Pyongyang. A year later, she became deputy director of the Department of Workers' Party Propaganda and Agitation of Korea and in July 2015 she officially headed this department.
North Korea's media also called him deputy minister in government, though it is not known for sure. Kim Yo Jong is the only female in the elite circle who gets direct access to talk with Kim Jong Un.
The siblings since the young are familiar. They both went to Bern, Switzerland in the 1990s, as quoted from Independent.co.uk, February 12, 2018. After returning from Switzerland in early 2000, Kim Yo Jong attended a computer science course at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. Kim Il Sung is his grandfather.
Born in 1987, Kim Yo Jong is the youngest of three child brothers from North Korea's highest leader, Kim Jong Il and his wife, Ko Yong Hui. Kim Yo Jong's childhood with his two siblings is different from the children their age at that time. They are isolated from the social and emotional world, and surrounded only by servants and bodyguards.
One day in early 2002, Kim Jong Il expressed his pride to his foreign guests about his youngest son interested in politics and wanted a career in government. At that time, Kim Yo Jong has completed his lecture in Switzerland.
After the expression of his father's pride, Kim Yo Jong was appointed as a young cadre in the Workers party. From here she started his political career. After the death of his father in 2011, following his mother who died of breast cancer in 2004, Kim Jong Un made Kim Yo Jong as his close aide.
Being a trustworthy person and able to talk directly to Kim Jong Un makes Kim Yo Jong an influential figure and became the second man to lead after his brother. To show how influential this woman can be seen when the State Council leader Kim Yong Nam invites Kim Yo Jong to sit first while being treated to tea with South Korean Unification Minister.
In Korea, only the person who occupies the highest position or oldest who are welcome to sit first at meals or meetings.
"This shows Kim Yo Jong is a real power figure, and not just because of the lineage," said Cheong Seong-chang, senior researcher at Sejong Institute.
Kim Yo Jong has also made the eyes of the world fixed on him while meeting and shaking hands with President Moon. The way this North Korean woman shakes hands and smiles and her far from glamorous looks captures the attention of international media.
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