The Sister: The Extraordinary Story of Kim Yo Jong, the Most Powerful Woman in North Korea

Abstract

Since her public emergence in 2011, after the death of her father Kim Jong Il, Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of Kim Jong Un who succeeded Kim Jong Il as leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK – North Korea), has proved an endless source of fascination for journalists. This fascination is particularly strong in the Republic of Korea (ROKSouth Korea) but has also grown internationally as she has come more and more onto centre stage. We know that, like her brothers, she was educated in Switzerland but, like them, was largely isolated from Swiss society. She has been a member of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the DPRK parliament, since 2014 and she also holds posts in the ruling Korean Workers’ Party. (KWP) She has been identified as a deputy director and later the director of the powerful KWP Propaganda and Agitation Department. There is also an unverifiable but plausible report that she may have taken over the important role of managing the family finances, a position once held by her father’s sister, Kim Kyong Hui.