North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s aunt was seen in public for the first time since the regime executed her husband for treason in 2013.
Kim Kyong Hui, 73, was spotted sitting near Kim during a concert celebrating the Lunar New Year in Pyongyang, North Korean state media the Korean Central News Agency reported on Sunday. She was seated between the dictator’s wife and his sister.
She’s back! After six years out of the public eye and many, many reports that she’d been killed, Kim Jong Un’s aunt Kim Kyong Hui reappeared in North Korean state media reports on Sundayhttps://t.co/Wvk7T2ZHo4 @nknewsorg pic.twitter.com/r9hh9e8BMA
— Oliver Hotham (@OliverHotham) January 26, 2020
Her husband, Jang Song Thaek, was once seen as the second-most powerful person in the hermit nation, according to CNN. Jang often appeared alongside Kim after he took over from his father Kim Jong Il in 2011 but was removed from power and executed in 2013, a move that shocked experts on the country.
Jang was called a “traitor” and “worse than a dog” by the regime, and state-run news media accused him of attempting to overthrow Kim’s government at about the time he was executed. Since her husband’s death, Kim Kyong Hui had not been photographed, fueling speculation that she might have been undergoing medical treatment or had committed suicide.
The sighting comes as tensions between the United States and North Korea persist. Kim has threatened to resume nuclear and ballistic missile testing if the U.S. doesn’t ease sanctions against the country.
“We found no reason to be unilaterally bound any longer by the commitment that the other party fails to honor,” Ju Yong Chol, an official at North Korea’s mission to the United Nations, said last week.
