Kim’s Aunt Erased from State Documentary

Kim Kyong Hui, aunt of Kim Jong Eun and wife of recently executed Jang Song Taek, appears to have been edited out of a
documentary aired on North Korean state television.

Kim has not appeared in public since she attended a performance in
September last year, and her noticeable absence from the inaugural meeting of the 13th
Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang this month is doing little to cool
rumors of her removal from the political sphere.

The documentary “Bringing Honor for Eternity through
the Sacred Place of the Eternal Sun” first aired on Chosun Central Television
on December 13th, two days after Jang Song Taek’s execution.  It featured Kim Kyong Hui, Kim Jong Eun, Ri
Sol Ju, and a number of military and Party cadres paying their respects to Kim
Jong Il at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in 2012.  This particular scene was cut in the version presented to domestic audiences last Tuesday.

It is not unusual for North Korea to remove all traces of individual from print and
visual media following a high-profile purge. Former Director of the Finance
and Planning Department Pak Nam Ki blamed for the disastrous 2009 currency
reform suffered this fate, as did former Chief of the General Staff of the
KPA Ri Yong Ho after being dismissed from his post in 2012. 

Kim Kyong Hui does not appear to be the only former high-ranking cadre removed from this particular documentary; former Chief Secretary of the Pyongyang KWP Committee Mun Kyong Dok, a known associate of Jang, has also been edited out.

A former high-ranking defector told Daily NK, “Kim Jong Eun
had Jang Song Taek executed for being a counter-revolutionary, and must have thought Kim Kyong Hui should be punished also.  Kim Jong Eun appears firm in his desire to purge those who were close to Jang.”