Kim Yo Jong’s role expands after promotion

Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Workers' Party of North Korea, was promoted to department director, a ministerial-level position, at the Ninth Party Congress and reinstated as an alternate member of the party’s Central Committee. With her political stature rising, she is expected to assume a broader role in shaping and executing both domestic and foreign policy.

According to the Korean Central News Agency on Feb. 24, North Korea held the first plenary meeting of the Ninth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party a day earlier, electing members of the Political Bureau and appointing new department directors. Kim, who had served as a vice department director, was elevated to department director, though the party did not disclose which portfolio she will oversee. She was also named an alternate member of the Political Bureau, the party’s top decision-making body. Kim previously served as an alternate member in 2020 but was removed at the Eighth Party Congress in August 2021. Her latest appointment marks her return to the Political Bureau in five years.

As the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong’s enhanced standing following the Ninth Party Congress is likely to translate into a more prominent role in policy toward South Korea and the United States. With Ri Son Gwon, who headed the party’s 10th Bureau, formerly known as the United Front Department, stepping down as department director, Kim could formally take charge of inter-Korean messaging and broader external affairs. Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, said Kim is expected to serve as the operational head of the party’s external affairs under her new official title.

The Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, the regime’s innermost circle of power, now comprises five members: Kim Jong Un; Pak Thae Song, premier of the Cabinet; Jo Yong Won, former director of the Organization and Guidance Department; Kim Jae Ryong, former director of the Discipline Investigation Department; and Ri Il Hwan, party secretary. Choe Ryong Hae, 76, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, was removed from the Standing Committee, and Kim Jae Ryong and Ri Il Hwan were newly appointed. A Unification Ministry official in Seoul said the personnel changes at the Ninth Party Congress appear intended to reinforce Kim Jong Un’s governing base through generational turnover.


Oh-Hyuk Kwon hyuk@donga.com