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THE SISTER
The extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most
powerful woman in North Korea
SUNG-YOON LEE
To my mentor, Professor John Curtis Perry
Contents
Principal Characters
Family Tree
CHAPTER 1
The Princess Cometh
CHAPTER 2
The Mount Paektu Bloodline
CHAPTER 3
Peninsular Predominance: Pyongyang’s Ultimate Mission
CHAPTER 4
All in the Family
CHAPTER 5
The Narcissistic Psychopath Father
CHAPTER 6
State Secrets
CHAPTER 7
The Apprentice Years: 2007–2009
CHAPTER 8
Funeral and Rebirth
CHAPTER 9
The Vile Ventriloquist
CHAPTER 10
The Pyongyang Games
CHAPTER 11
The Blue House Visit
CHAPTER 12
A Korean Comedy of Errors
CHAPTER 13
Who Trumped Whom?
CHAPTER 14
The Ascent: Mounted Paektu Princess
CHAPTER 15
Weaponizing Food: A Family Practice
CHAPTER 16
Twisted Sister
CHAPTER 17
They Call Her ‘Devil Woman’
Acknowledgements
Footnotes
Notes
Index
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
North Korea
Hong Il Chon: First wife of Kim Jong Il. Married 1966, but
estranged shortly after birth of Kim Hye Kyong.
Jang Song Thaek: Husband of Kim Kyong Hui and long-time
number two of Kim Jong Il. Executed in 2013 or 2014.
Kim Chun Song: Younger daughter of Kim Jong Il and Kim Yong
Suk. Half-sister of Jong Un and Yo Jong.
Kim Hye Kyong: First-born child of Kim Jong Il. Mother is Hong Il
Chon.
Kim Jong Nam: Kim Jong Il’s eldest son, born to Song Hye Him.
Once presumed to be his father’s nominated heir. Assassinated in
2017 on the orders of his younger half-brother, Jong Un.
Kim Kyong Hui: Younger sister of Kim Jong Il.
Kim Sol Song: Older daughter of Kim Jong Il and Kim Yong Suk.
Half-sister of Jong Un and Yo Jong.
Kim Yong Suk: Second wife of Kim Jong Il. Mother of Sol Song and
Chun Song.
Ko Yong Hui: Kim Jong Il’s common-law wife. Mother of Jong Chul,
Jong Un and Yo Jong.
Ri Sol Ju: Wife of Kim Jong Un.
Song Hye Rim: Mistress of Kim Jong Il and mother of Kim Jong
Nam.
Choe Hwi
Choe Son Hui
Choe Thae Bok
Hyon Song Wol
Jo Yong Won
Kim Chang Son
Kim Hyok Chol
Kim Jong Gak
Kim Ki Nam
Kim Song Hye
Kim Yang Gon
Kim Yong Chun
Kim Yong Nam
Pak Jong Chon
Ri Myong Je
Ri Son Gwon
Ri Yong Ho
U Dong Chuk
South Korea
Presidents
For the next two days, the mysterious young princess from
Pyongyang had South Korea enthralled by not doing anything much
besides walking, sitting, dining, occasionally talking, infrequently
smiling, shaking hands, ghosting Mike Pence while sitting above him
in the Olympic stands, and quite frequently looking down her nose at
the South Koreans she met – including President Moon Jae-In. She
didn’t give a single public statement or interview.
Yet she was the talk of the nation, and far beyond the peninsula.
Press coverage of Kim Yo Jong remained intensely over-the-top from
the first moment of her visit until she took off aboard her brother’s
plane late on the night of 11 February. As the press kept reminding
the public, hers was the first-ever visit-by-invitation to South Korea
by a member of the North Korean royalty. The world, including
President Moon and his officials, gawked. Fascination bordering on
fetishism followed her wherever she went, swelled by her femininity
and the South’s hopes of communing with her brother. That she
simply showed up in the South made her an international star.
Princess-watchers from Tokyo to Washington opined on her simple
taste in fashion, royal comportment, modesty, imperiousness, self-
confidence, demureness, and her Mona Lisa smirk-smile.
She herself gave no overt message to the South Korean people or
to the world. But she brought that personal letter from her brother
inviting President Moon to Pyongyang, which made her presence all
the more tantalizing. Whether the Kim siblings were scheming to use
the softest target in their geopolitical neighbourhood – i.e. whoever
occupies the Blue House as South Korea’s elected leader – with a
view to moving up to a slightly harder target in President Donald
Trump, was a consideration complicated to the point of being
unnecessary. The Princess of Mount Paektu was here, in South
Korea! Her flesh and blood presence, keenly tailed and surrounded
by her brother’s royal bodyguards, could only mean the two Koreas
stood on the verge of an epoch-making event. It presaged, at the
very least, reconciliation and peace – perhaps even eventual
reunification.
The sensational optics trumped the cold reality. The majority of
South Koreans did not favour making even a small financial sacrifice
to underwrite the long-term economic cost of reunification. And the
eventual reunification dreamed of by Kim Yo Jong and her brother
would be only on their terms: dominated by the Kim dynasty,
antithetical in turn to South Koreans grown used to basic freedoms
and relative affluence. But to raise such sober points in the euphoria
of the moment seemed downright curmudgeonly.
That Kim Yong Nam, a veteran of six decades in high government
positions, had been for the past twenty years President of the
Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, North Korea’s rubber-
stamp parliament, was of interest only to a few specialists. Most
South Korean viewers knew that it was the First Sister of North
Korea who wielded the real power. Kim Jong Un actually sending his
own sister, went the logic, could only mean she was bringing peace.
The public also intuitively knew that in North Korea, the Supreme
Leader’s word carried far greater authority than any written statutes
or government rank. Kim Jong Un was the state and his words the
inviolable law. But what the public largely missed was that his sister
was far more than just a pretty face at her brother’s party meetings
and on-the-spot guidance tours. Her brother was the face of the
nation, but she was the chief censor, the enforcer. Her visit to the
Olympics was not as a tourist or messenger. The sister had a
purpose.
This book will document Kim Yo Jong’s rise in power since her visit
to South Korea. Her role in government has dramatically increased
since 2018, but was foretold as early as 2009. We’ll see how she has
played an integral part in statecraft, expanding her dynasty’s power
by utilizing lessons learned from her father, Kim Jong Il. At the time
of writing, she is second in power only to her brother Kim Jong Un,
and the fate of the ‘Mount Paektu Bloodline’ may yet lie in her
hands.
CHAPTER 2
Neljästoista luku
LEVASSEURIN UROTEOT
Kello mahtoi olla siinä kymmenen tienoissa seuraavana aamuna,
kokonainen tunti ennen sovittua lähtöaikaa, kun pieni kanootti laski
Ukkosen jylinän kupeeseen ja puoliveri-intiaani lähti astumaan laivan
portaita kannelle. Hän oli pukeutunut karvaisiin parkitsemattomiin
nahkahousuihin, ja punainen huopapeitto teki takin virkaa. Hän toi
kokoonkäärityn paperilapun kapteeni Levasseurille.
»Heittäkää tuo lihakasa laidan yli», käski hän paria miestä, jotka
joutilaina kävelivät keskikannella. »Sitten ankkuri ylös ja
hollantilaisen perään.»
»Aluksi minulla oli vain aikomus ottaa se, mikä minulle kuuluu,
jotakin, joka on minulta ryöstetty. Mutta koska te olette halunnut
sotaa ja avannut tulen laivaani vastaan aiheuttaen sille vahinkoa ja
tappaen viisi miestäni, niin tämä on sotaa ja niin muodoin on myös
teidän laivanne minun sotasaalistani.»
Sinne tuotiin heti myös tytön veli. Kapteeni nousi ottaakseen hänet
vastaan ja taivutti pitkää vartaloaan välttyäkseen lyömästä päätään
hytin matalaan kattoon. Mademoiselle nousi myös.
»Siinä nyt näet», sanoi hän. »Hän lyö miestä, jonka kädet ovat
sidotut.»
»Pieni hupakko, etkö kuullut, kun veljesi äsken sanoi, että olet
minun vallassani? Pane se mieleesi ja muista, että tulit omasta
vapaasta tahdostasi. Minä en ole niitä miehiä, joiden kanssa naisen
sopii leikkiä viimeistä paria ulos. Tule siis järkiisi, tyttöseni, ja pidä
hyvänäsi omat aikaansaannoksesi.» Hän suuteli tyttöä taas, miltei
halveksuen, ja työnsi hänet sitten luotaan. »Ei mitään otsan
rypistyksiä enää, muuten saat katua niitä», hän sanoi lopuksi.