Kim’s sister to visit S Korea
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s 28-year-old sister will make her debut on the world stage when she visits South Korea to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Friday, Seoul’s unification ministry said.
Pyongyang told Seoul that Kim Yo Jong would accompany Kim Yong Nam, North Korea’s nominal head of state, along with Choe Hwi, chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee, and Ri Son Gwon, who led inter-Korean talks last month.
Kim Yo Jong would be the first member of the Kim family, born on the sacred Mount Paektu, which is a centrepiece of the North’s idolisation and propaganda campaign, to cross the border to the South.
Her inclusion in the delegation is “meaningful” as she is not only the sister of the country’s leader but has a significant position as a senior official of the ruling Workers’ Party, the South’s presidential Blue House said. “It shows the North’s resolve to defuse tension on the Korean peninsula,” a Blue House spokesman said.
But the trip could become a source of contention between Seoul and Washington, as she was blacklisted last year by the US treasury department over human rights abuses and censorship, while Choe faces a travel ban under UN Security Council sanctions.
Kim Yo Jong is vice director of the party’s Propaganda and Agitation Department, which handles ideological messaging through the media, arts and culture.
In 2016, South Korea’s former spy chief said Kim Yo Jong was seen “abusing power”, punishing propaganda department executives for “minor mistakes”.
The opening ceremony will also be attended by US vice president Mike Pence, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other world leaders.
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