Sister of North Korea’s Kim spotted with children believed to be hers

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The North Korean leader’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, was seen with two children attending a New Year performance, in a video released by state media, sparking renewed speculation about her family and its place in the Kim dynasty.

A video of the New Year art performance, aired by Korean Central Television, showed Kim Yo Jong – leader Kim Jong Un’s sister who serves as vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea – walking outside the venue, holding the hand of a boy, with a girl next to her.

The video only showed Kim Yo Jong walking with two children but other scenes suggested the leadership, including her brother, Kim Jong Un, entered the venue with their families. Kim Jong Un was seen walking with his daughter, Ju Ae, who is increasingly suspected of being lined up as his successor.

North Korea is very secretive and little information is released about the private lives of its leaders, meaning outside observers trying to build up a picture of senior figures seize upon any sighting.

Kim Yo Jong has been closely monitored by foreign governments and media due to her presumed power and influence in North Korea.

An official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which focuses on inter-Korean relations, noted that it was difficult to draw presumptions based on the video.

In April 2015, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, or NIS, reported that Kim Yo Jong was presumed to be expecting a child the following month. Later, in 2018, a government source stated that she was pregnant with her second child during her visit to South Korea for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February of that year.

(Jorge Silva/AFP)

There has been speculation that Kim Yo Jong’s husband is the second son of top official Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, but this has not been confirmed.

The NIS had previously speculated that Kim Yo Jong’s husband was a former classmate at Kim Il Sung University.

The North Korean Strategic Information Service Center, a Seoul-based defector group, said in 2018 that Kim Yo Jong’s husband is the child of a low-level party official and a Kim Il Sung University graduate named Woo In Hak.

At that time, the center suggested that Kim Jong Un may have chosen an ordinary family man with no political ties to be his sister’s husband to prevent him from garnering too much power, as his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, did.

Jang, married to the only daughter of the North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, was once one of the most powerful figures in the regime, serving as vice chairman of the National Defense Commission. In December 2013, he was arrested during a high-profile party meeting, accused of treason, corruption, and factionalism.

Days later, he was executed in what the regime called an effort to purge “counter-revolutionary elements.”

His dramatic downfall and execution marked a turning point in Kim Jong Un’s consolidation of power and sent shockwaves through North Korea’s political elite.

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Family members of the ruling Kim dynasty who are not in line for leadership often face isolation, exile or worse.

The siblings of former leader Kim Jong Il, for instance, experienced varied fates; some lived in relative obscurity, while others fell out of favor. His younger brother, Kim Pyong Il, spent decades abroad as a diplomat, reportedly under surveillance, and returned to North Korea in 2019, possibly under house arrest.

Kim Jong Il’s half-brother, Kim Yong Ju, who was seen as a successor, was sidelined and lived a low-profile life until his death in 2021.

Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Il’s eldest son and estranged heir, lived in exile before his 2017 poisoning at an airport in Malaysia, an assassination North Korean exiles and experts suspected was ordered by Kim Jong Un.

Other members of the extended family have disappeared from public view, believed to be either under tight control or eliminated to prevent any challenge to the leader’s power.

Kim Yo Jong’s children, if indeed the two pictured with her are hers, would not appear to be in the direct line of succession.

North Korea watchers suspect Kim Jong Un is nurturing his daughter, Ju Ae, as a successor.

Kim Ju Ae’s age has not been publicly confirmed but she is believed to be between 10 and 12 years old.

She has increasingly been seen with her father at various events, leading to speculation she has been chosen as the fourth generation of the Kim family to lead the nation.

The NIS has suggested North Korea is portraying Ju Ae as a strong candidate to succeed her father by stepping up her public appearances to gauge the public reaction.

Edited by Mike Firn.