The sister of Kim Jong-un expected to the South for a historic first

AFP

Wednesday, February 7, 2018 04:56

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Wednesday, February 7, 2018 04:56

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SEOUL | The sister of north Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be the first representative of the ruling family to visit South on the occasion of the Olympic winter games, a new sign of rapprochement between the two Koreas.

Kim Yo-Jong, the leader of the single party, will be part of a high-ranking delegation is expected Friday in the South and led by a ceremonial head of State of North Korea, announced on Wednesday that the ministry and south Korean Unification.

The peninsula is divided by the demilitarized Zone since the end of the war in 1953, and the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang have earned him multiple trains of UN sanctions.

Tensions have rocketed in the past year, the North leading to the firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the continental United States, and a sixth nuclear test, its most powerful to date.

But the games in Pyeongchang are the occasion of a “détente” between the two neighbours.

“It is highly significant that a member of the Kim family to visit the South for the first time in History”, said to AFP, Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of the studies in north Korean.

In all likelihood, Kim Yo-Jong is expected to meet with south Korean president Moon Jae-In and deliver a personal letter from his brother, expressing the hope that the games are successful and that the bilateral relations are improving, he continued.

“This will mark the debut of Kim Yo-Jong on the international scene”, he also pointed out.

A family affair

Kim Yo-Jong, who would be aged about thirty years, was promoted in October, the political bureau of the workers ‘ Party of Korea, the decision presided over by his brother.

It has often been seen accompanying her brother in “orientation tour on the ground,” and she was in charge of propaganda operations of the party in power.

The american vice-president Mike Pence, who will also be present in Pyeongchang, did not rule out meeting North Korean. This did not prevent him to warn that Washington would not allow the North to take the games “hostage” and that the United States is preparing to unveil the economic sanctions as “the toughest” ever taken against Pyongyang.

The presence of Mr. Pence is perhaps this that explains the decision of Mr. Kim to send her sister to the South, judge Koh Yu-Hwan, a professor at the university of Dongguk. “His visit is going to cause a media circus, driving the star to Mr. Pence, who wants to put the focus on the abuse of Human rights in North Korea and its nuclear programs”.

The three-day visit of the north Korean delegation will be the culmination of a diplomatic rapprochement between South and North but it may not last, warn experts.

For months, the North is still deaf to the calls of Seoul to participate in the “olympic peace”, until Kim Jong-un not to extend the hand on the day of the New Year.

Kim Il-Sung still president

This discourse has precipitated a series of meetings which saw the two parties agree to march together at the opening ceremony and form a joint team of the women’s ice hockey.

The north Korean delegation will be officially led by Kim Yong-Nam, president of the presidium of the supreme people’s Assembly – the Parliament controlled by the single party. He occupies the position as an honorary head of State.

A point of view of protocol, this is the most senior north Korean to visit the South of the DMZ.

Pyeongchang will be his third JO after Beijing in 2008 and Sochi six years later.

Despite his diplomatic role, his actual political power is uncertain.

It does not hold the title of president of North Korea, not Kim Jong-un. Although he died in 1994, this title remains personified by Kim Il-Sung, the founder and eternal president of the democratic Republic of the people of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

The delegation will also have in its ranks Ri Son-Gwon, the head of the Committee for the peaceful reunification of the country, the equivalent of the ministry and south Korean Unification.