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North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un is in poor health. A successor is therefore already ready: his sister. The 36-year-old is likely to become a vengeful ruler, her biographer believes.
For this appearance probably Kim Yo-jong have practiced for a long time: With an ice-cold smile on his face, North Korea’s number two came into the spotlight five years ago, his chin slightly turned upwards, an upright walk, a fixed gaze. Dozens of cameras were on the sister of North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un as she walked through the terminal at Incheon Airport on a Friday in February 2018. She was the first member of the Kim family since the Korean War to set foot on South Korean soil to attend the opening of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. If she was nervous, you couldn’t tell.
The world watched the scenes spellbound and asked itself: Who is this woman that the North Korean dictator sent to the south of the divided country? For the North KoreaAccording to expert Lee Sung-yoon, the answer is simple: Kim Yo-jong, he says, is “the most powerful woman in the world”. Because no one in the isolated country has more power than her, apart from her brother. Because North Korea has the atomic bomb, this makes Kim Yo-jong a “nuclear despot” who can plunge the world into a nuclear war with the push of a button. Lee believes: Kim Yo-jong is a woman the West should keep an eye on. Because she could one day inherit her brother as North Korea’s ruler.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un “could succumb to a heart attack or stroke tomorrow”
Lee Sung-yoon, a native of South Korea and now a researcher at the US think tank Wilson Center, has studied Kim Yo-jong for years. In his new book “The Sister” he describes the 36-year-old as a talented and ambitious woman, as smart and worldly. But also as calculating, cold and evil.
Kim Yo-jong grew up in Pyongyang with Kim Jong-un and another brother; in the 90s the three of them attended a school in Switzerland. Today she is director of North Korea’s Ministry of Propaganda and Agitation and one of the regime’s loudest mouthpieces. “We will continue to build an overwhelming and powerful military force,” she said at the end of April. As the granddaughter of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, she is also something of a saint, a member of North Korea’s royal family, which has ruled the country without restrictions since its founding in 1948. From Kim Il-sung, power of the so-called “Paektu Line” passed first to his son Kim Jong-il, then, in 2011, to his grandson Kim Jong-un.
“Power has to stay in the family,” says Lee in an interview IPPEN.MEDIA. “And the next leader must be a direct descendant of Kim Il-sung.” The expert therefore believes that one day Kim’s sister could take power. Although she is only three years younger than her brother, he is “not in good health,” says Lee. Kim Jong-un is a chain smoker and alcoholic and is also very overweight. “Kim Jong-un is young, only 40 years old. So he could live for the next 40 or 50 years,” says Lee. “But he could also succumb to a heart attack or stroke tomorrow.” In any case, it is hard to imagine that Kim doesn’t think about who will succeed him one day.
Will Kim Jong-un’s daughter be his successor – or his sister?
North Korea’s dictator apparently has three children, including a daughter who is said to be named Ju-ae. South Korea’s secret service considers the girl, who is about 12 years old, to be Kim Jong-un’s “most likely” successor. This is supported by the fact that the girl has been appearing in public at her father’s side for a good year and a half: at rocket tests, at military exercises, and most recently at the opening of a greenhouse. Apparently it should be put into position in time.
But if Kim Jong-un dies in the next few years, then Ju-ae will simply be too young to succeed her father, believes Lee Sung-yoon. So put Kim Yo-jong at the head of the totalitarian state. “There is no other possible family member than his sister, at least until one of Kim Jong-un’s children reaches adulthood.” Lee doubts that Kim Yo-jong will then only remain a temporary regent. He thinks it’s possible that she simply doesn’t want to give up power anymore. The Kim regime has always not been squeamish about possible rivals, even if they are part of the family. So Kim Jong-un had his uncle executed and his half-brother murdered.
North Korea is a male-dominated society, and Kim Yo-jong would have to prove herself as a woman if she were to inherit her brother, her father and her grandfather. “There is therefore no reasonable reason to believe that she will be less ruthless than her predecessors,” says her biographer Lee Sung-yoon. “In fact, I think she will be even more cruel and vengeful.”
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