While Kim Jong Un still maintains “absolute authority” over North Korea, he reportedly handed some additional power down to his sister Kim Yo Jong.
South Korea-based Yonhap News Agency reported that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service made the observation during a closed-door meeting with lawmakers.
Kim Yo Jong is “steering overall state affairs,” the spy service reportedly said at the briefing. The agency said that the move to give Kim Yo Jong more power was made partly to “relieve stress from his reign and avert culpability in the event of policy failure.”
“Chairman Kim Jong Un is still maintaining his absolute authority, but some of it has been handed over, little by little,” the agency added, although it reportedly pointed out that the move does not mean Kim has picked anyone to succeed him.
The spy service said that in addition to his sister, who has been given the most power, Pak Pong Ju, vice chairman of the State Affairs Commission, and Premier Kim Tok Hun have been given increased power over the nation’s economic sector.
International attention turned to 32-year-old Kim Yo Jong earlier this summer amid reports that her older brother was in “grave danger” because of a health situation. In June, she made headlines when she blasted North Korean defectors as “human scum little short of wild animals.”
