Kim Jong Un’s younger sister made her first public appearance since she was reportedly passed over as his heir in favor of her teenage niece while at a ceremony where the North Korean dictator gave his snubbed sibling a consolatory promotion.
Kim Yo Jong, 38, joined her brother during the week-long Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, where she was named a full department director, state media Korean Central News Agency reported.
Yo Jong, who has served as a deputy department director with the party, is expected to lead the state’s propaganda wing, which includes overseeing inter-Korean relations and external strategies, according to South Korean outlets.
Yo Jong has significant political and military support in North Korea and has long been one of her brother’s closest lieutenants since he came to power following their father’s death in 2011.
Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector and scholar, noted that the promotion was a significant one that allows Kim to maintain his control across important sectors of his government while keeping his sister happy.
“Kim Yo Jong is one of the very few people that Kim Jong Un can trust and rely on,” Chan-il told the AFP.
Yo Jong’s promotion comes about two weeks after South Korea’s spy agency released a report that Kim was gearing up to formally appoint his 13-year-old daughter, Kim Ju Ae, as his successor.
Ju Ae is the dictator’s only child to have been shown to the public, with the teen already receiving the training needed to take over the Kim dynasty, according to Seoul.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) suggested Ju Ae’s appearance at this week’s congress would be the final piece of evidence to demonstrate that she is her father’s true successor, but no reports have emerged so far confirming she was present.
Family treachery is not new in the Kim household. The dictator famously mounted an attack on his uncle and mentor, Jang Song Thaek, when he took over Pyongyang.
Kim had Jang arrested on charges of committing “anti-party, counter-revolutionary, factional acts.” The uncle was found guilty and executed by firing squad in 2013.
