Kim Yo-jong establishes herself as Kim Jong-un’s closest associate

Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) First Vice Director Kim Yo-jong (lelft) and North Korean State Affairs Commission Chief Secretary Kim Chang-son step aboard the platform of the railway station at Dong Dang in Vietnam’s Lang Son Province from the personal train of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Feb. 26. (Yonhap News)

The North Korean leader’s younger sister takes on a variety of roles in Hanoi summit

Kim Yo-jong, first vice director of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), continues drawing attention in Hanoi, the setting for the second North Korea-US summit. Accompanying older brother and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un from the closest of positions, she embodied the role of “closest associate.”

Kim Yo-jong was the first to appear before the world press as Kim Jong-un arrived in Vietnam. At around 8:13 am on Feb. 26, Kim’s personal high-security train could be seen arriving at Dong Dang railway station in Lang Son, a Vietnamese province that borders China, after its trip southward across China. As the train stopped amid flashing cameras, Kim Yo-jong was first to open the door and step out. Dressed in a black jacket and skirt and high heels, she and State Affairs Commission Chief Secretary Kim Chang-son closely examined the red carpet and surrounding situation. In a possible gesture to the cameras, she smiled gently as she re-entered the train. Kim Jong-un stepped out of the train roughly a minute later.

Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) First Vice Director Kim Yo-jong holds an ashtray for her older brother Kim Jong-un at Nanning railway station in southern China, close to the Vietnamese border, hours before their arrival in Hanoi on Feb. 26. (Yonhap News)

Kim Yo-jong also accompanied her brother on his first outing that evening with a visit to the North Korean Embassy in Hanoi. At around 7 pm, she joined Kim Chang-son and Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee Vice Chairman Pak Chol in visiting the summit venue at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel, remaining there for around 40 minutes before returning to her hotel. Her visit, which was apparently intended to personally check up on security and protocol at the summit site, suggests her role is not restricted to being part of her brother’s entourage.

Also generating discussion was an image shown on Japan’s TBS network prior to the train’s arrival in Vietnam. Early that morning, footage was released showing Kim Yo-jong holding an ashtray beside her brother as he stepped out of his personal train smoking a cigarette during a stop at Nanning Station in southern China close to the Vietnamese border.

Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) First Vice Director Kim Yo-jong walks ahead of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the Pyongyang inter-Korean summit at the WPK headquarters on Sept. 18, 2018. (joint photo pool)

“It is much more natural for his younger sister to be holding [the ashtray] than someone else,” said former South Korean Minister of Unification Jeong Se-hyun of the image during a Feb. 27 appearance on the CBS Radio program “Kim Hyeon-jeong’s News Show.”

“If someone else was holding it, they’d call it ‘obsequious,’” he added.

Kim Yo-jong was also seen in close attendance with her brother at three inter-Korean summits last year and the first North Korea-US summit in Singapore on June 12. Her roles there included handing him specially prepared pens positioned in front of important documents and accompanying him to meetings to take notes.

By Lee You-jin, staff reporter

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