Sister with sphinx-like smile

Anna Fifield

They marvelled at her barely-there makeup and her lack of bling. They commented on her plain black outfits and simple purse. They noted the flower-shaped clip that kept her hair back in a no-nonsense style.

Here she was, a political princess, but the North Korean “first sister” had none of the hallmarks of power and wealth that Koreans south of the divide have come to expect. Most of all, Kim Yo Jong was an enigma. Just like them, but nothing like them. A woman with a sphinx-like smile who gave nothing away as her brother Kim Jong Un’s special envoy.

“I thought Kim Yo Jong was going to be so serious, but she smiled all the time, so she made a good first impression,” said one woman.

Kim is “the Ivanka Trump of North Korea” because of her family connections and her ability to be a compelling saleswoman, said Sue Mi Terry, a former Korean analyst at the CIA now with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. South Korean television drew that parallel, noting that Kim had sent his sister to the opening Olympic ceremony, while US President Donald Trump was sending his daughter to the closing.

If the outside world is puzzled by this regime, just imagine how strange North Korea seems to those in the South. They speak the same language, share the same myths, love the same food. Yet the leaders are so foreign.

Somehow, Kim managed to pass the whole visit without uttering a word in public. When local journalists asked her how she felt to be in South Korea, she just smiled. Footage from meetings she had with the South Korean leader again showed her smiling and relaxed, but the cameras didn’t catch a single word.

Terry warned against being sucked in by Kim’s good cop routine. “Kim Yo Jong is totalitarianism with a human face. She is acting as a goodwill ambassador for a country that has earned no goodwill.”