Kim Kyong Hui, a former senior official of the ruling Workers’ Party, has not been seen since January 2020 – her husband Jang Song-thaek, who was reportedly executed for treason in 2013
Kim Jong Un’s wife and aunt make rare public appearance
Kim Jong-Un’s aunt has been spotted in a rare public appearance after the dictator had her husband executed in 2013.
Kim Kyong-Hui, a former senior official of the ruling Workers’ Party, has not been seen since January 2020.
She is the sister of Jong-Un’s father and late North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il.
She has stayed out of the spotlight following the death of her husband, Jang Song-thaek, who was reportedly executed for treason.
Song-thaek was widely considered the second-most powerful figure in North Korea before he was convicted of treason in 2013.
He was executed by machine gun at the Gang Gun Military Academy near the capital Pyongyang, and his body was then incinerated with a flamethrower, The New York Times reports.
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Image:
KCTV)
The exact reason for his alleged execution remain unclear, but North Korea had previously described Song-thaek as “human scum worse than a dog” and claimed he had betrayed the Kim family by plotting to overthrow Jong-Un.
After Jong-Un’s father died, Song-thaek was said to have helped the supreme leader establish himself as a successor.
However, it was alleged Song-thaek was spreading his own influence and ideas of reform which appeared to undermine Jong-Un’s totalitarian rule.
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Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
Jong Un’s wife Ri Sol-Ju was also seen with his aunt for the first time since September.
Sol-Ju and Kyong-Hui were seen on state media attending an art performance at the Mansudae Art Theater in Pyongyang to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
The official KCNA news agency said: “When (Kim) appeared at the auditorium of the theater with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, amid the playing of the welcome music, the audience raised stormy cheers of ‘Hurrah!'”
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Image:
REUTERS)
Footage showed Jong-Un’s wife wearing a traditional red and black hanbok dress, talking and smiling with her husband.
The couple then went on stage to shake hands and take photos with artists.
Sol-Ju was last seen on September 9, when she joined the supreme leader on a visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on the anniversary of North Korea’s founding.
It is where the embalmed bodies of the leader’s grandfather and father are held.
Kim Jong-Un’s visit to the theater came after the release of a typically dramatic propaganda film, which showed him riding a variety of horses.
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