NEW KIM ON BLOCK
Rocketman better watch out. His kid sister, nicknamed “Princess,” is now acting more like the Terminator.
Kim Yo-jong, all regal cheekbones and icy glare, ordered a joint liaison office blown up last week as part of an aggressive charge against South Korea — and by extension the United States. She also slammed the leader of South Korea and threatened military action in a sudden seizing of power that may or may not be authorized by her big brother.
Some wonder if she is the Hermit Kingdom’s new power player and want to know her endgame.
“From what I’ve observed she is cold and ruthless and haughty,” said Suzanne Scholte, the American founding co-chair of Free North Korea Radio and president of the Defense Forum Foundation.
“Her new aggressiveness is part of the consolidation and solidification of power. Kim Jong-un has to show that if something were to happen to him, there’s a successor and that the Kim family . . . bloodline is still in power,” she added.
Once described only as her brother’s close aide, Kim Yojong has made herself a force to be reckoned with almost overnight in Pyongyang.
“There is no No. 2 in North Korea but she is acting like a No. 2,” David Maxwell, a retired US Army Special Forces colonel and North Korea expert, told The Post. “Kim must have given her the authority.
That provides him with options for the future.”
Talk that North Korea would never accept a woman leader is untrue, some say.
“She’s fierce and formidable and I don’t think her gender is an issue at all,” Sean King, an Asia specialist at Park Strategies, told The Post.
Educated at posh Swiss schools like her brother, Kim
Yo-jong lives in the luxurious palace compound in Pyongyang, reportedly with her high-ranking political-official husband Choe Song.
She represented North Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics held in South Korea and was at her brother’s side at summits with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in, President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China. She reportedly fell out of favor after the disastrous Hanoi summit in 2019 ended abruptly without any sanctions lifted — but has clawed her way back to power.
Even veteran observers of North Korea aren’t sure if her sudden coming out is more proof that the roly-poly Rocketman is on his last legs — he was last seen publicly on May 1 — and needs to groom his sister as successor, or if the two of them just want to keep the West guessing.
“It could be part of a deception strategy,” Maxwell said. “He’s sitting back watching us speculating. Remember this is all about the sanctions and North Korea is taking aim at the south to pressure them to intervene with Washington.”