Daily Times

The name of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister was missing from a new list of the ruling Workers’ Party’s politburo, according to state media on Monday, raising questions about her status after several years of increasing influence. The party held elections on Sunday for its Central Committee at a congress, which maps out diplomatic, military and economic policy goals over the next five years.

Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister, remained a member of the Central Committee but was not included in its politburo, lists released by the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, showed.

In 2017, Kim became only the second woman in patriarchal North Korea to join the exclusive politburo after her aunt Kim Kyong Hui. South Korea’s intelligence agency said in August she was serving as her brother’s “de facto second-in-command”. But the signals were mixed for observers of the reclusive regime. Her absence from the politburo list comes days after she took the leadership podium for the first time alongside 38 other party executives as the congress began. “It is too early to draw any conclusion about her status, as she is still a Central Committee member and there’s a possibility that she has taken up other important posts,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul. Kim Yo Jong’s influence has grown dramatically in recent years.

As she emerged as a political figure, she appeared to be her brother’s personal secretary. She later acted as his special envoy to South Korea and a deputy director of a party department overseeing personnel and organisational affairs.

Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the US-based Stimson Center, said Kim Yo Jong enjoyed the highest degree of influence on policy deliberations and decisions regardless of whether she was on the politburo or not.

“We have become accustomed to seeing her in a more public role, but Kim Yo Jong’s political roots and her formative career experience are behind the scenes, not sitting on a platform listening to speeches,” he said.