Kim Jong Un has delegated some of his authority to his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, to help him deal with his mixed stress at leading North Korea, according to South Korea’s spy agency.
The despot’s sister now serves as his ‘de facto second-in-command’, although she has not been appointed as his successor, the National Intelligence Service said.
“Kim Yo Jong, the first director of the deputy department of the Central Committee of the Labor Party, is sending general state affairs on the basis of the delegation,” the agency was quoted as saying in a closing door briefing to South Korean lawmakers. the Yonhap News Agency reported.
The change of power seeks in part to release “stress (from Kim) from his government and dismissal of guilt in case of policy error,” the intelligence bureau said.
“President Kim Jong Un still retains his absolute authority, but some of it has been handed down little by little,” he said, adding that his sister is not the only one sharing power with him.
Pak Pong Ju, vice-president of the State Commission, and the new prime minister, Kim Tok Hun, have taken power in control of the economic sector, the bureau added, Yonhap reported.
Kim Yo Jong received widespread recognition prior to her brother’s summit in 2019 with President Trump in Vietnam, when she tried to ensure that everything went well, including an ashtray for her brother or sister at a train station during his trip. , reports Reuters.
In July, she offered personal views on diplomacy with Washington in an unusual statement in state media, saying her brother had given her special permission to watch recordings of the Independence Day celebrations in the US.
When speculation arose in April about Kim Jong Un’s health, his sister was considered a possible replacement to take over the family dynasty until one of the despot’s children was old enough.
But Kim Yo Jong is absent from several recent high-level meetings, including a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party on Wednesday, according to NK News, a Seoul-based website that follows North Korea.
During the session on Wednesday, Kim Jong Un acknowledged that sanctions by US leadership, the coronavirus pandemic and devastating floods have hurt his country’s battered economy.
His ruling party convened a rare congress in January to set development goals for the next five years.
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