Roughly ten of Kim Yo Jong’s classmates
from North Korea’s most prestigious Kim Il Sung University are said to have
been expelled to regions outside of the capital for having disclosed they have
ties to the leader’s younger sister, Daily NK has learned.
“A number of officials working at major
state agencies in Pyongyang were reported to the central Party for having frequently
mentioned they were graduates from the same class as Kim Yo Jong,” a source
from North Hamkyung Province told Daily NK. “In the North, you’re not allowed
to talk freely about the ‘highest dignity’ (Kim Jong Un) and that includes his
sister. They were trying to brag, so they were expelled,” she explained.
This news was corroborated by an additional source residing in the capital.
Rumors of this news are spreading like
wildfire at the university in question. “Cadre members whisper
among themselves that the classmates got into trouble for trying to take
advantage of the fact (that they know Kim Yo Jong),” she added.
Yo Jong’s friends started openly talking
about knowing her after she began working as the vice minister of the Party’s
Department of Propaganda and Agitation, prompting officials to notify the
leader, said the source. “Kim Jong Un was disgusted that they would try to
benefit from knowing his younger sister and kicked them out,” she explained.
The source speculated that Yo Jong may have
told her friends to ‘use her name when in need’, given her bright and outgoing
personality and extensive list of friends. “Had she known about the expulsion,
she would have strongly opposed,” the source surmised.
The purge took place back in May, when Kim
Jong Un was much angered by the mismanagement of a terrapin farm in Pyongyang,
leading to the execution of the farm manager. Having received the report about
Yo Jong’s friends at such a time, the source added, it may have become more
problematic and led to graver consequences.
Locals have said they are not surprised at
the news, the source said, as they are already well aware of the leader’s short
temper and emotionally-charged decisions. “People say he’s so rash that he
killed his own uncle and goes after the lives of cadres like they’re nothing. To
him, his sister’s friends probably don’t mean a thing,” the source concluded.
