Kim Yo Jong, 38, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is widely expected to take the reins if her brother dies. The question of succession resurfaced after social media rumours claimed Kim Jong-un had died, just as similar rumours spread in 2020 when he disappeared from public view for months.
The latest rumours appeared to be started by Wanjun Xie, Chairman of the China Democracy Party, who claimed the leader slipped into a coma after being rushed to Beijing for emergency treatment. North Korean media then shared "proof of life" images showing Kim at a garment and footwear exhibition yesterday. The images are yet to be independently authenticated, and the wellbeing of the 42-year-old is unconfirmed.
Who is Kim Yo Jong?
Kim Yo Jong has been described as the second most powerful person in North Korea. She already holds two senior government roles and has significant influence in the nuclear-armed regime. She is the only daughter of Kim Jong Il, who led the country from 1994 until his death in 2011, and first appeared in public at her father's funeral.
She has held numerous roles since, from vice director of the Korean Workers' Party's Propaganda and Agitation Department to membership of the State Affairs Commission. In 2018 she was part of North Korea's delegation at the Winter Olympics in South Korea, and a year earlier she was added to the US sanctions list because of her country's human rights record. Little is known about her personal life; unverified reports suggest she is married with two children, while others state she attended school in Bern, Switzerland, before studying at Kim Il Sung University.
Analysts warn of an 'iron fist'
Retired US Army Colonel David Maxwell said "we have to assume that every successor is worse than the last", adding: "I haven't seen any evidence, any indication of how she might rule, but my speculation — given the reputation and history of the family — is that she would rule with an iron fist."
Analysts have predicted that in the event of her brother's death, she would take charge as interim leader until the dictator's daughter, Kim Ju Ae, 13, was old enough to hold power. Both Kim Yo Jong and her niece have flanked the supreme leader at military demonstrations and international summits in recent years.
'Most dangerous woman out there'
Sung-Yoon Lee, a professor at Tufts University, once told the New York Post that Kim was "ambitious and smart" and that she "does cast a softer feminine glow on the brutish facade of her regime". Her comments about South Korea have been far harsher. In 2022 she told South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol to "shut his mouth" while calling him "really simple and still childish".
She also accused Seoul of bringing Covid-19 into North Korea, saying: "We have cleared out the virus spread by the South Korean scum. We must counter it toughly. We have already considered various counteraction plans but our countermeasure must be a deadly retaliatory one." South Korea has previously described her words as "deplorable" and claimed she had "no basic form of etiquette". She once said Joe Biden was an "old man with no future".
Her life is explored in a biography, The Sister: The extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most powerful woman in North Korea, written by Sung-Yoon Lee. Writing in the Big Issue, he warned: "Unauthorised and undiplomatic, my biography of Ms Kim pulls few punches. Referring to her as the world's first 'nuclear despotess', hence, the most dangerous woman out there, I portray her as the de facto second-in-command to her brother, who heads a nuclear-armed and uniquely cruel regime."
