Kim Jong-un’s Sister Kim Yo-jong: Powerful North Korean Woman To Attend Winter Olympic Games
Kim Jong-un’s influential sister, Kim Yo-jong, is going to attend Friday’s opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, which are being held in South Korea. After Kim’s wife, Ri Sol-Ju, Kim Yo-jong is considered as one of the most powerful figures in the Korean Peninsula and has remained in the news for her take on several policies.
Pyongyang notified Seoul that Kim Yo-jong would be accompanying Kim Yong-nam — North Korea’s nominal head of state — reports The Guardian.
Kim Yo-jong is the younger daughter of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his wife Ko Yong-hui. The 31-year-old Yo-jong completed her studies in Switzerland along with her brother Kim from 1996 to 2000.
Upon her arrival to her mother country, she reportedly acquired the knowledge of computer science from Kim II-sung Military University.
According to International Business Times, she reportedly has taken over state duties when Kim Jong-un underwent medical treatment.
Many experts have even pointed out that Yo-jong organizes all major public events in North Korea and has even encouraged Kim to present an image of a “man of the people.”
Many even suggest that her post at politburo — North Korea’s top decision-making body — indicates that she reportedly is a replacement for Kim’s aunt, Kim Kyong-hui, who was very influential during the reign of Kim’s father but allegedly does not have an active role in the current regime.
Not only this, Kim Yo-jong remains blacklisted by the United States over her alleged connections to the human rights abuses in North Korea.
As earlier reported by Inquisitr, to improve its economic and international relations with South Korea, North has decided that during the upcoming Winter Olympics, the teams of both the countries will march under one flag as the joint team.
The experts, however, state that the North’s participation at the games won’t change how Kim Jong-un reportedly plans to use his nuclear powers.
Meanwhile, the United States believes that under Kim’s dictatorship, North is apparently using the Winter Olympics for propaganda purposes. To counter it, under Donald Trump’s presidency, the U.S. is sending Vice-President Mike Pence to the opening ceremony.
“We’re traveling to the Olympics to make sure that North Korea doesn’t use the powerful symbolism in the backdrop of the Winter Olympics to paper over the truth about their regime,” he said.
