The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
visited South Korea while pregnant with her second child, according to reports
in the South Korean press.
Kim Yo Jong herself announced she was
expecting, according to unidentified officials quoted in local media during her three-day stay in the country at the
beginning of the month as part of a high-level North Korean delegation.
According to these sources, 30-year-old Kim Yo Jong avoided certain foods
and a pregnancy bump could be seen protruding from her coat.
A spokesperson for the Unification Ministry
said the South Korean government knows nothing of the pregnancy. “There is
nothing that we’ve known of,” the official told Yonhap news agency. “That’s the South
Korean government’s stance.”
The presidential office issued “no comment”
in response to reporters’ questions, according to The Korean Herald . One anonymous government source
confirmed the pregnancy rumors to Yonhap, but an intelligence official,
quoted in the same article, said, “I cannot confirm [them].”
Kim Yo Jong’s first significant public
appearance in North Korea was at her brother Kim Jong Un’s side at their father
Kim Jong Il’s funeral. She has since been seen with her brother at public
events such as concerts or standing in for him at state functions. The
recent trip to South Korea earned her unprecedented worldwide media attention,
yet little is known for certain about the youngest of North Korean founder
Kim Il Sung’s grandchildren.
While Kim Jong Un has reportedly fathered 3 children at least one of whom is a girl, Kim
Yo Jong is thought to have had her first pregnancy in 2015, but her child’s
gender is not known. Pictures of her wearing what appeared to be a wedding ring
that same year sparked speculation that she married Choe Song, the son of her brother’s close
aide, Choe Ryong-Hae.
Like her older brothers, Kim Yo Jong lived
and studied abroad in Switzerland as a teenager before following in her
father’s footsteps, joining the North Korean ruling party’s Propaganda and
Agitation Department, performing a role that included curating her brother’s
public image—which was carefully crafted to evoke their grandfather—and being one of Kim Jong Un's closest aides. She joined the country’s
top decision-making body in October less than two years after
becoming a member of the party’s central committee, capping a rapid ascent to
power.
