Kim Yeo Jung, who Daily NK today revealed has been made a Chosun Workers’ Party delegate to the upcoming Delegates’ Conference, is still something of a shadowy figure in the North Korean regime. She has never made an official public appearance; simply, she has long been known as the youngest child of Kim Jong Il and his third wife, Koh Young Hee.
She is said to have been born in September 1987, but even this is not a certainty. Neither is her current position in the North Korean regime; her name was left off Kim Jong Il’s funeral committee last December, a move which experts at the time put down to her lack of a formal position in public life.
However, observers have long believed that as the blood sister of Kim Jong Eun it is only a matter of time before Yeo Jung takes a concrete role at her brother’s side, in the same way as Kim Jong Il’s sister Kim Kyung Hee used to do before he passed away.
One Beijing-based source in Beijing says he believes that Kim is currently engaged in public activities under an assumed name. According to him, she started working more publicly following the 3rd Party Delegates’ Conference in 2010, and is now believed to be active in the Party Guidance Department.
An inside North Korea source recently revealed that from 2008 until he passed away in December, 2011, Kim was allegedly responsible for deciding whether Kim Jong Il’s onsite guidance inspections could go ahead; she visited sites, assessed security and other factors, then made the final decision.
According to one high-level defector, in 2009 on the day before Kim Jong Il was due to make such a visit to a fertilizer manufacturing facility in South Hamkyung Province, Kim Yeo Jung came by unannounced to inspect it. For this reason, she became known in some circles as the ‘secret royal inspector’.
“Kim Jong Il followed Kim Yeo Jung’s instructions to the letter,” the source said. “Her say-so decided Kim Jong Il’s local visits.”
