Amid speculation she was told to lay low, Kim Jong Un's sister makes public appearance
After months of speculation over her whereabouts, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, was spotted Tuesday in the audience of the country's mass games in Pyongyang.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency showed video of Kim Yo Jong sitting with her brother, his wife, and other top officials, The Associated Press reports. Kim Yo Jong was last seen in public on April 12, when she attended a meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly.
Due to their close relationship and her high position in North Korea's ruling party, it seemed strange that she did not accompany her brother on his trip to Russia in April. Last week, a South Korean newspaper reported that after Kim Jong Un's February summit in Hanoi with President Trump flopped, Kim Yo Jong was told to keep a low profile. The paper also reported that five top North Korean officials were executed after being accused of spying for the United States, and others were banished to camps for political prisoners or condemned to forced hard labor.
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Kim Yong Chol was one of the men who was reportedly sent away, but he was seen at the mass games and at a concert over the weekend. Analyst Cheong Seong-Chang told AP it's likely Kim Yo Jong was just taking a break from being in the public eye, and had she been disciplined for her role in the failed summit, she would not have attended the Supreme People's Assembly meeting in April.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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