Kim Jong-Un's Aunt Makes Rare Public Appearance After Her Husband Was Executed For Treason
Kim Jong-un's aunt has been spotted in a rare public appearance alongside her nephew at a Lunar New Year celebration in Pyongyang. Watch below:
Kim Kyong-hui, a former senior official of the ruling Workers' Party, has been seen very few times following her husband's execution for treason in 2013. Her last public appearance was in January 2020.
She is the sister of Jong-un's father and late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
She has largely remained out of the public eye following the death of her husband Jang Song-thaek.
Prior to this, Song-thaek was widely considered to be the second-most powerful figure in North Korea and a key player in securing Jong-Un's succession to the throne following the death of his father.
However, he was later accused of attempting to spread his own thoughts of reform and was deemed to be a threat to Jong-un's totalitarian regime.
Following his death, The New York Times reported that he was executed by machine gun, and his body was then incinerated with a flamethrower.
North Korea has since claimed that Song-thaek betrayed the Kim family and was plotting to over Jong-un, describing him as 'human scum worse than a dog'.
Jong-un's wife Ri Sol-ju was also seen for the first time in public since September 2021.
Sol-ju and Kyong-hui were seen on state media at the country's Lunar New Year celebrations at Mansudae Art Theatre in Pyongyang.
Sol-ju's last public appearance was when she joined the supreme leader on a visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on the anniversary of North Korea's founding.
Prior to this, she had once garnered international attention as she often accompanied her husband on social, business and even military outings, in a stark break from his father, who was rarely seen in public with any of his wives
However in recent years her appearances have become less frequent, prompting international reports of pregnancy or ill health. Whether either of these were true has remained unconfirmed.
Kim Jong-un is rumoured to have three children, but details of his private life are treated as a state secret by North Korean officials.
Isobel Pankhurst