Kim Yo Jong Fast Facts
CNN Editorial Research
(CNN) — Here is a look at the life of North Korean government official Kim Yo Jong, sister of Kim Jong Un. Little is known about her as the family is notoriously secretive.
Personal
Birth Date: September 26, 1987 or 1988 (Widely believed to be in her mid 30s, though her reported birth year varies.)
Father: Kim Jong Il
Mother: Ko Yong Hui
Marriage: Choe Song
Children: Information unavailable publicly
Education: Kim Il Sung University
Education and Family
Attended school in Bern, Switzerland, around the same time as her brother Kim Jong Un in the late 1990s. She studied under various pseudonyms.
One of at least five known siblings. She is the youngest child of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Ko Yong Hui. She is the sister of the current leader Kim Jong Un. Her grandfather was North Korea’s first leader.
Political Career and Public Appearances
2007 – Named junior cadre in the ruling Korean Workers’ Party (WPK).
2009-2011 – Works in the National Defense Commission and serves as Kim Jong Il’s personal secretary
December 2011 – Attends her father’s state funeral.
March 2014 – Attends the Supreme People’s Assembly elections. This is her first public appearance alongside her brother and the first public mention of her name by North Korean state media.
October 2014 – According to a Seoul-based think tank run by North Korean defectors, Kim briefly takes charge of the country while her brother is reportedly ill with gout or diabetes.
2014 – Is appointed vice director of the Workers’ Party of Korea Propaganda and Agitation Department.
January 11, 2017 – The US Treasury Department releases a statement that designates and sanctions Kim in response to “human rights abuses and censorship activities.”
October 8, 2017-January 2021 – Alternate member of the WPK’s Politburo. It is unclear in what capacity she has served in this position. On some lists she is not named, leading to speculation that she has been demoted and reinstated more than once. As of January 2021, she no longer appears as an alternate member. She has also been alternately listed as “first vice department director” to “vice department director” of the Politburo.
February 9, 2018 – Kim attends the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She is the first member of the North’s ruling dynasty to visit the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
February 10, 2018 – Meets with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and issues a formal invitation to Moon from Kim Jong Un to travel to North Korea for what would be the first meeting of Korean leaders since 2007.
June 12, 2018 – Attends the US-North Korea summit in Singapore as envoy for Kim Jong Un, meeting US President Donald Trump.
February 27-28, 2019 – Attends the US-North Korea summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.
March 12, 2019 – North Korean state media announces Kim is elected to the Supreme People’s Assembly.
September 30, 2021 – North Korea’s state-run media announces Kim is now a member of the State Affairs Commission (SAC), the country’s ruling body headed by her brother. A seat on the SAC is the highest official position she has held.
August 10, 2022 – According to North Korea’s state-run media, Kim calls for a “deadly” retaliation against South Korea, blaming North Korea’s neighbor for the country’s Covid-19 outbreak.
September 13, 2023 – During a North Korea-Russia summit, appears in footage alongside her brother Kim Jong Un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome space center in Russia.
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