Kim Yo Jong has international clout, party experience but it is uncertain if she can win acceptance from old, male generals FMTNews Korea
PYONGYANG: Of all the family members who could eventually take the reins from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his sister seems like the obvious choice.
“Not only the male-dominant leadership, but also ordinary people there would resist a female leader.” Over that time, it has built up one of the world’s most vigorous personality cults — making the preeminent claim to legitimacy in the dictatorship a bloodline said to stem from the sacred Mount Paektu near the Chinese border.
She could also similarly surprise anyone who doubts her ability to run the country, according to Soo Kim, a Rand Corp policy analyst who specialises in Korean Peninsula issues.“I don’t think she needs to worry about gaining acceptance as a leader by the North Korean people by virtue of her Kim family bloodline,” Soo Kim said. “North Korea’s fate begins and ends with the Kim family.”
Thae Yong Ho, the former No 2 at North Korea’s embassy in London who defected to South Korea, said in a radio interview that one potential successor is Kim Pyong Il, the only surviving son of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung who returned to the country last year following four decades overseas serving as a diplomat.
She joined her brother at a school in Bern, Switzerland until about 2000 and later came back to study in North Korea.Her appearance by her brother’s side at the time of their father’s death let the North Korean public know she was a part of the Paektu bloodline. “When Kim Yo Jong has risen as high as she already has, she is no longer considered a woman but a leader who inherited greater legitimacy to rule than others,” said Chun Yungwoo, South Korea’s former envoy to international nuclear talks with North Korea.
“However, we will never lose or waste time for nothing, but will keep changing ourselves to be more powerful for that time just as how we made ourselves for the past two years.”
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