Hmmm this is very interesting. Could this be the beginning of the
Hmmm this is very interesting. Could this be the beginning of the uniting of the Koreas? When women get together, you know that anything can happen! In a good way! South Korea is already run by a woman, President Park Geun-hye. Could North Korea be next?
Kim Yo Jong cuts a contrasting figure to her pudgy older brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
On Thursday, state media said the younger Kim, 27, had taken a senior position in the ruling Workers’ Party, confirming speculation she had moved closer to the center of power in the secretive state.
It named her as a vice director alongside the head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, which handles ideological messaging through the media, arts and culture.
Kim Yo Jong’s title supports earlier reports from a North Korean defector group which said she may have taken a high-level role when Kim Jong Un recently disappeared from public view for more than a month, prompting speculation about his grip on power.
South Korea’s intelligence agency later said Kim, 31, was likely to have had surgery on his left ankle. Kim has since reappeared, walking with a limp.
Kim Yo Jong’s power has been likened to that of a prime minister, an unnamed South Korean intelligence source told the Seoul-based JoongAng Ilbo newspaper in April, even before her brother’s injury.
Kim Yo Jong has featured in state propaganda since her brother took over the nuclear-capable country upon the death of their father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.
Women in patriarchal North Korea rarely become high-ranking officials or military commanders. They do, however, receive military training.
They are also vital to North Korea’s moribund economy. With many men engaged in state-appointed jobs in factories and bureaucratic departments, it is often women who turn to black market trading to earn the income most families need to survive.
But for Kim Yo Jong, it is her family name and proximity to Kim Jong Un that supersedes any cultural norms.
Source Reuters