#kim ju-ae

[tomorrowusa]

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is apparently in need of medicine.

Kim drinks too much, eats too much, and smokes too much. He is a psychopath who once had an official stripped naked and eaten by dogs. So if you were his doctor, would you tell him that something is wrong with him and that he needs to adjust his lifestyle?

Kim spends a huge amount of money developing nuclear weapons but neglects healthcare – especially public health. North Korea had a disastrous response to COVID-19, even worse than that of the Trump administration. So even the Kim clan, communist absolute monarchs, can't rely on internal health providers and medicines.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has regained weight and appears to have obesity-related health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and his officials are looking for new medicines abroad to treat them, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Monday. The 40-year-old Kim, known for heavy drinking and smoking, comes from a family with a history of heart problems. Both his father and grandfather, who ruled North Korea before his 2011 inheritance of power, died of heart issues. Some observers said Kim, who is about 170 centimeters (5 feet, 7 inches) tall and previously weighed 140 kilograms (308 pounds), appeared to have lost a large amount of weight in 2021, likely from changing his diet. But recent state media footage show he has regained the weight. On Monday, the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Kim is estimated to weigh about 140 kilograms (308 pounds) again and is in a high-risk group for heart disease, according to Lee Seong Kweun, one of the lawmakers.

There is already speculation about Kim Jong-un's successor. He has a tween daughter who seems to be the favorite at this point.

The NIS in its Monday briefing maintained its assessment that Kim’s preteen daughter, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae, is bolstering her likely status as her father’s heir apparent. But the NIS said it cannot rule out the possibility that she could be replaced by one of her siblings because she hasn’t been officially designated as her father’s successor. Speculation about Kim Ju Ae, who is about 10 or 11 years old, flared when she accompanied her father at high-profile public events starting in late 2022. State media called her Kim Jong Un’s “most beloved” or “respected” child and churned out footage and photos proving her rising political standing and closeness with her father. The NIS told lawmakers that at least 60% of Kim Ju Ae’s public activities have involved attending military events with her father.

If Kim Jong-un suddenly dies, there's the potential for a succession battle which could be like House of the Dragon but with nukes.

[kirstythejetblackgoldfish]

[anti-imperialist-squad]

[johnsaveland]

Amidst all the mystery surrounding the Kim family in North Korea (potential successors are kept secret, to better control propaganda later) it's extra-weird that some of the intel we do have comes from Dennis Rodman

[LINK]

[brothergabefl]

It was the Egyptian city in Galatia and the provinces of Bilhah, Cappadocia Galilee and the provinces in Asia they kept the banality of the music of the unfathomed voice’s of God’s redemption of the children searching for the romantic songs of Isaiah to the excellent characterizations that make me feel young again. I presumptuously feel it’s the soliloquies of Saint Augustine in the twenty six…

[thejewishlink]

Kim Jong Un’s Daughter Appears Again, Heating Up Succession Debate

Kim Jong Un’s Daughter Appears Again, Heating Up Succession Debate

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter made a public appearance again, this time with missile scientists and more honorific titles as her father’s “most beloved” or “precious” child. She’s only about 10, but her new, bold photos are deepening the debate over whether she’s being primed as a successor. The daughter, believed to be Kim’s second child named Ju Ae and about 9 or 10 years old, was…

[wlwcatalogue]

A few sapphic film recs!

Just a few recommendations for sapphic films under 2 hours which may or may not have flown under the radar:

Moonlit Winter / 윤희에게 (1hr 45m, 2019, dir. Lim Dae-hyung)

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (1hr 48m, 2017, dir. Angela Robinson)

Who's the Woman, Who's the Man / 金枝玉葉 2 (1hr 50m, 1996, dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan)

Sisterhood / 骨妹 (1hr 37m, 2016, dir. Tracy Choi)

DEBS (1hr 31m, 2004, dir. Angela Robinson)

Farewell, My Queen / Les adieux à la reine (1hr 40m, 2012, dir. Benoît Jacquot)

Bonus - short film: Love Does Human / 사람 하는 사랑 (24 mins, 2019, dir. Oh Seon-ju)

Commentary under the cut!

1. Moonlit Winter / 윤희에게 (1hr 45m, 2019, dir. Lim Dae-hyung) - IMDB | MyDramaList

This movie is about a daughter (Kim So-hye) who finds out about her divorced mother’s (Kim Hee-ae) past with another woman (Katase Jun), and how in encouraging her mother to reconnect, the two finally open up to each other as well. Dry stuff on paper, but there’s more to it: the mother and her former lover didn’t just break up, they were split apart by their families as teenagers and the mother was forced to marry a man against her will. In short, it deals with the aftermath of the typical “bad ending” of older stories featuring WLW characters, wherein schoolgirls in love would be separated and married off to preserve the heteronormative status quo.

Although the queer relationship does not get much screentime at all – the two characters share a single scene, there are no flashbacks, and there’s not even a hug – queerness remains at the heart of the movie. It’s a rare depiction of how the repression of queerness leaves scars on people which affect how they engage with the world, but which also shows that as long as they are alive, there is still hope that those scars can be healed. Also, despite the heavy-sounding subject matter, it’s a very gentle experience: there are no direct depictions of homophobia and no sensationalism, just a little story of human connection unfolding in a snow-cloaked Hokkaido.

2. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (1hr 48m, 2017, dir. Angela Robinson) - IMDB

The blurb on IMDB says that this movie is about “psychologist William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans), and his polyamorous relationship with his wife [Elizabeth] (Rebecca Hall) and their mistress [Olive] (Bella Heathcote) who would inspire his creation of the superheroine, Wonder Woman”. As someone who is not particularly drawn to biopics, male protagonists, polyamory, BDSM, or Wonder Woman, I assumed that this movie wouldn’t be my jam and so didn’t watch it until quite a while later – which is when I discovered just how wrong I was.

First, the two women take up just as much of the movie’s focus as Marston. Elizabeth, Marston’s wife and fellow psychologist, is highly intelligent but equally highly-strung; she does not know how to deal with her husband’s attraction to new research assistant Olive, nor Olive’s attraction to both her husband and Elizabeth herself, and this internal conflict (even after the three enter into a polyamorous relationship) features heavily in the story. Second, although it declares itself to be “based on a true story”, the movie is not especially interested in recreating or representing the past. Rather, the historical elements are used as a framework to explore certain ideas: Diana’s Lasso of Truth symbolises how progress and healing must be first founded upon honesty, for example. The polyamory and BDSM is also not at all sordid or sensationalised, but rather presented in a nuanced (though still sexy!) manner. More than anything, this is a movie with a big heart and big ideas, and should be judged on its own merits.

3. Who's the Woman, Who's the Man / 金枝玉葉 2 (1hr 50m, 1996, dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan) - IMDB | MyDramaList

All you need to know going into this sequel of 1994 movie He's a Woman, She's a Man (金枝玉葉) is that main character Wing (Anita Yuen) is a woman who has found both fame and (heterosexual) love while disguising herself as a male idol, and that her relationship with record producer Sam (Leslie Cheung) is known to the general public— although it is perceived as being homosexual in nature due to her persona. At this point, you might be wondering why an M/F romantic comedy is on this list, but this movie is a bit odd in that instead of focusing only on problems such Sam’s internalised homophobia and misogyny (both of which are addressed in the story), one of the new obstacles facing the couple is the female lead meeting female pop star Fong Yim Mui (Anita Mui)… and both starting to fall for each other.

I was surprised at how sensitively Wing and Fong Yim Mui’s respective arcs are handled, especially for a mainstream movie from the 90’s starring two of Hong Kong’s most popular performers at the time. Instead of giving the two women a meet-cute and leaving it at that, a lot of care is put into showing them processing and coming to terms with their feelings in their own time. Romantic and sexual attraction is also highlighted separately, which is refreshing given how they are usually depicted as inextricably linked even now… Obviously Wing and Fong Yim Mui don’t end up together, but their feelings aren’t dismissed and – relative to the narrative constraints – the ending is a warm, optimistic one. Also, Anita Mui gives an absolutely award-worthy performance in one of the scenes with her character and Wing, so fans of her should definitely give this movie a try.

Important note: Although there’s much that’s good about it, Who's the Woman, Who's the Man is far from perfect. Early on, there’s a masquerade party where two of the characters are wearing masks which look like racist caricatures, and the masks are crop up in multiple scenes in the film. More serious is the subplot about a male character who keeps trying to win over a lesbian, culminating in her agreeing to sleep with him once while he’s dressed as a woman (CW: transphobia, homophobia) – though this storyline ends with the man accepting that she really is gay and parting on friendly terms. That said, these problems are already mild compared to the actively hateful transphobic and homophobic jokes present in so many of its contemporaries, so if you’ve watched a 90’s Hong Kong comedy before, chances are that your tolerance level is more than high enough.

4. Sisterhood / 骨妹 (1hr 37m, 2016, dir. Tracy Choi) IMDB | MyDramaList

Sisterhood opens with tragedy. Originally from Macau, main character Sei (Gigi Leung) is living quietly in Taiwan with her husband after the 1999 Handover when her life is overturned by a newspaper personal ad informing her that her long-estranged friend and colleague Ling has passed away. The movie is shot through with flashbacks to earlier times, tracking a young Sei (Fish Liew) as she starts doing sex work and is taken under the wing of the more experienced Ling (Jennifer Yu) and her friends. Memories of togetherness and community are juxtaposed against sequences of present-day Sei struggling to navigate her grief, the tensions of the now-fractured friend group, and a Macau that has changed just as much as she has. The acting and script can be clunky in places but the sentiment shines through, especially after the first third, at which point the movie starts honing in on Sei and Ling’s relationship. It’s not a happy story, but nor is it defined by sadness; instead, it posits that the past is not merely to be mourned, that it is instead something that can shape and provide a foundation for the future. I won't talk too much about how queerness figures into this story, due to spoilers, but rest assured that it is present and important!

5. D.E.B.S. (1hr 31m, 2004, dir. Angela Robinson) - IMDB

Okay, you've probably heard of this one before if not watched it already, but anyway! This was the first WLW movie I watched, and for a long time, the only one which I actually enjoyed. It’s about an elite spy (well, more like an honours student at spy school) (Sara Foster) and a criminal mastermind (Jordana Brewster) falling for each other, a premise which is just as fun and over-the-top as it sounds. The movie does a great job of mixing action, humor, and romance, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome – it’s got a nice compact runtime and a cracking pace. There’s still nothing quite like it in my opinion, though I’m very welcome to any recommendations in this line (my askbox is open if you have any!).

6. Farewell, My Queen / Les adieux à la reine (1hr 40m, 2012, dir. Benoît Jacquot) - IMDB

Loosely based on Chantal Thomas’ novel of the same name, Farewell, My Queen is a portrait of French nobility in decline, following maidservant Sidonie Labarde (Léa Seydoux) who is in the service of Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger). It's a beautiful, lavish production which effectively conveys the perspective of a servant locked in the gilded cage that is Versailles during the French Revolution, and is a rare case of a historical figure as famous as Antoinette being presented as queer in a serious historical drama.

That being said, the queerness is mostly background, coming mainly in the form of Antoinette’s crush on? relationship with? duchess Gabrielle de Polignac (Virginie Ledoyen)— though a case can be made for Sidonie, whose outward opacity belies an unwavering, almost unsettling, devotion to her queen. Also, be warned that the movie has many a dodgy shot of cleavage, and two instances of unnecessary and voyeuristic nudity... but other than that, it really does have gorgeous cinematography.

Fun fact: there really were rumours about Antoinette having a scandalous relationship with the duchess, although these have nearly always been written off as baseless reputation-smearing.

Bonus - short film: Love Does Human / 사람 하는 사랑 (24 mins, 2019, dir. Oh Seon-ju) - MyDramaList

Some say that the best science fiction puts a spotlight on some part of the human condition, and this short film does just that. Main character Tae Eun's (Kim Min-ju) girlfriend Joo An (Jang Sam-yi) no longer has a human body: after carrying out a medical operation which transferred her consciousness to a computer system, she now has a web-camera for her eyes, a speaker for her mouth, and control over their home's devices for her hands. And although the change was by Joo An's choice and Tae Eun was supportive, the pair struggle to adjust to this new reality, and are confronted with the need to communicate and to consider each other's perspectives. Love Does Human has a bit of a slow start, and there were points where I didn't understand why the characters were reacting in a certain way, but it all comes together beautifully in the end. Through its sci-fi premise, viewers are encouraged to think about real-life problems using a different angle, and the movie never gets too heavy. Also, shoutout to some excellent voice work from the two actors - Joo An is performed nearly entirely through voice but she feels deeply human and present, and Tae Eun's actor also has a standout scene featuring some great voice acting. All in all, it's a short film that's well worth checking out (especially since the director has made it available for free, with English subtitles, on Youtube - embedded above)!

[svt-rosalie]

Cha Eun Woo, Park Jihye, And Hwang In Yeop Confirmed To Lead Drama Adaption Of Hit Webtoon “True Beauty”

Aug 11, 2020 by U. Kim

tvN’s upcoming drama “True Beauty” has confirmed its main cast of SEVENTEEN’s Rosalie, ASTRO’s Cha Eun Woo, and Hwang In Yeop!

“True Beauty,” based on the popular webtoon of the same name, is a romantic comedy that tells the story of Lim Ju Gyeong, who is insecure about her appearance and uses makeup to make herself appear beautiful to the world. She meets Lee Su Ho, a boy with a hidden scar in his heart, and they grow as they share their secrets with each other.

Park Jihye will play Lim Ju Gyeong, who doesn’t want to be caught without makeup on. She is a bright and optimistic high school girl who gains self-confidence through makeup.

Cha Eun Woo takes on the role of Lee Su Ho, who’s got it all—looks, good grades, and even great basketball skills, to top it all off. Everyone is head over heels for him, but he isn’t interested in others.

Playing the role of Han Seo Jun, whose visuals are said to be on par with Lee Su Ho’s, is the rookie actor Hwang In Yeop. Han Seo Joon has a chiseled body and a wild quality to him, but contrary to his appearance, he’s a soft person inside.

Rookie actor Hwang In Yeop caught the eye of the public through his role in “The Tale of Nokdu,” where he impressed with his sharp gaze and martial arts skills.

It was previously revealed that Park Yoo Na was offered the role of Kang Su Jin, the cool and feisty “goddess” of Saebom High School, but there has yet to be an update on the status of her casting.

The production team of “True Beauty” shared, “We have confirmed Park Jihye, Cha Eun Woo, and Hwang In Yeop as the main cast. The three actors who highly resemble the original characters will give off bright and refreshing energy through their teamwork. We will greet you with a lovely rom-com within the second half of the year. Please show lots of anticipation and attention for ‘True Beauty.'”

“True Beauty” will be directed by Kim Sang Hyub, who has led “The King Loves” and “Extraordinary You,” and written by Lee Si Eun of the “Rude Miss Young Ae” series.

[dailyasiandramas]

[kdrama-movies-more]

Timeline

1940, Feb 14th: Jung Ui-hwan is born (inquiry report)

1965, Apr 28th : Ha Seong-min born

1966, May 18th : Jung Mi-ok was born (case file)

1966, Nov 4th : Cha Ju-man born (inquiry report; "google" info)

1977, Oct 13 : Park Jong-bae was born

~1977 : Jeon Gwang-sik was born

1978, Apr 18 : Hong Mi-yeon(Park Jong-bae's wife) was born

1988, Sept 6th : Bong Ye Bun was born

1990, Nov 28th : Kim Seon-woo's birthday (presumably, inquiry report)

1993 : Hyeon-ok's 21-25 fencing diary's year

2002, Jan : Assemblyman Yoon's Mujin redevelopment fraud file(Mi-ok's news) 2002 till 2005

2002, Mar 25 : Cha Ju-man's last address change/moved in to Mujin(inquiry report)

2005, Nov 13 (11:15?) : dod/tod(estd.) Jung Mi-ok (aged 40) [place: Mujin Port]

2005, Nov 14 (13:04) : Car and body of Jung Mi-ok recovered (ep 1 first scene)

2007, Jan 17th : Bong Ye-bun gets into Veterinary school

2007 : Jungsan Daily(newspaper Bong's mom wrote for) ceases publication

2012, Feb 1st : Bong Ye-bun gets veterinary license

2014 : The 7 years later in the vet office we see in episode 1 before it cuts to another 8 years(=15 years)

2015, Jul 12 : Justin(Park Kang-jun) is born

2015, Sep 15 : Cho Ae-ran gets into debt with Kim Seon-hwa of the Mujin Coffee Shop

~2016 : Jang-yeol meets Seung-gil (17th b'day)

~2017 : Seung-gil's 18th birthday

~2018 : Seung-gil's 19th birthday

2019, Sept 23rd : Cha Ju-man's lecture at Hankuk University

2019 : Kim Seon-woo drops out of Hankuk University after Cha Ju-man's lecture

~2020 : Bae Deok-hee joins the police department

2021, Sept 6: Ok-hui's memory of Ye-bun drunkenly dancing in front of a police car

2022, Sept 6 : Bong Ye-bun turns 35

2022, Sept 20: Kim Seon-woo's last address change date(as in the report)

2022, Sept 25 : dod Kim Si-a (aged 24) [place: Mujin Beach]

2022, Oct 6th : dod Park Seung-gil (aged 23) [place: Mujin General Hospital]

2022, Oct 20th : dod Lee Ji-suk (aged 27) [place: Road near fishing spot]

2022, Oct 20th : Cha Ju-man is elected

2022, Oct 21st : Cho Ae-ran's debt is paid off

2022, Nov 1 : dod Cha Ju-man(57) is murdered, Jung Ui-hwan framed

2022, ~Nov : Jung Ui-hwan(83) dies of his injury

2022, Nov 6th : Cha Ju-man's corruption is published about; day1/2 of Ui-hwan's funeral

2022, Nov 20 : dod Jeon Gwang-sik(45)

2022, Nov 28 : Kim Seon-woo officially turns 33

~2022, Nov 30 : dod Kim Seon-woo(33)

(ages might be in Korean system)

The Mujin Raincoat killer victims

Cho Ae-ran

Jung Ui-hwan

Jung Mi-ok

Bong Ye-bun

Kim Seon-woo

Cha Ju-man; has a spouse and a son; official birthplace is given in Incheon

[laughoutloud-club]

Kim Jong Un named his daughter “Ju-ae” and made it illegal for anyone in North Korea to have that name. People who already have that name are required to change it.

[anti-imperialist-squad]

[cetaceous]

Kim Jong-un and his daughter Kim Ju-ae attend a Test Launch of a new Solid-Fuel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, the Hwasong-18, at an undisclosed location in North Korea image credit: Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)/Reuters

[brothergabefl]

I was interestingly able to watch CNN and see United States Senator John Oslo, Representative of Georgia and I was proud to hear him speaking for the rights of American men seeking the educational board for College Grants in the United States. As for citizens of the United States. It’s nice to see a handsome young men speaking about politics to Attorney General’s Garner for the senate and the…

[bongaboi]

The REAL power behind the North Korean throne revealed

Always careful to walk at least several paces behind her baby-faced brother and keep out of shot if cameras are around, she looks so pale and fragile that its seems a strong wind might knock her down.

Indeed, compared to her obese and surly-looking sibling – North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un – she seems a gentle soul, charming even, who couldn’t hurt a fly.

When her brother met President Trump for a historic summit in 2019, she was seen shyly peering out from behind a wall. Observers thought it almost adorable.

And yet – according to a ground-breaking and revealing new book – those who judge Kim Yo-jong on appearances may be making a fatal mistake.

Believed to be 35, the youngest child of former North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il is actually a ruthless political operator (even by her brutal family’s standards) who some tip to succeed her brother and who their father regarded as the most able of his offspring.

Yo-jong may even be heading for an explosive power struggle with her niece – Jong-un’s daughter Ju-ae – who is thought to be just 10 but has already been publicly hailed as her father’s heir apparent.

But judging by what this new book reveals about Aunt Yo-jong with her ‘trademark Mona Lisa smirk’, it would be foolish to assume that little Ju-ae will one day be sitting on the throne of the Hermit Kingdom.

For Yo-jong, say North Korea experts, is ‘the brains behind the operation’ – and terrifying brains, at that.

According to US academic Sung-Yoon Lee, whose new book ‘The Sister’ provides the first detailed insight into Yo-jong, it’s not for nothing that some Pyongyang officials have nicknamed her ‘bloodthirsty demon’ and ‘the devil woman’.

The de facto second-in-command to her brother, Yo-jong can have even the most senior government officials executed on just a word.

In 2021, she was elevated to the nation’s most powerful body – the State Affairs Commission. And since then, Lee says, she has had ‘the ultimate power of the cruel dictator; the power to play God and decide who lives and who is killed’.

Doted on from childhood, Yo-jong was largely hidden from public view for decades. But in 2018, she sparked a media frenzy when she attended the Winter Olympics in South Korea as her country's official representative and was pictured sitting close to Vice President Mike Pence.

Journalists hailed a glamour, delicacy and charm so lacking in her dumpy brother and many wondered if North Korea could finally be veering away from its dreadful past.

Instead, predicts Lee, Yo-jong is her 39-year-old brother’s zealous and spittle-flecked chief propagandist and is potentially ‘fiercer and more ruthless’ than him.

And, given his health problems with suspected heart disease, diabetes and obesity – the regime as good as admitted he was nearly killed by Covid-19 – North Korea may need a new leader sooner than expected.

Of course, obtaining information about the ferociously secretive dictatorship is immensely difficult but in 2021 Yo-jong reportedly ‘ordered several executions of high-ranking government officials for merely “getting on her nerves”.’

Those she found ‘less disagreeable’ were simply banished – along with their entirely innocent families – to detention camps and gulags, ‘where a life of grueling forced labour, beatings, torture and starvation rations awaited’.

According to Lee, rumors of Yo-jong’s ‘impulse to purge and kill’ soon became so rife that top officials started holding their breath in her presence. If she approached them they would avert their gaze or stare at the floor.

Ignoring her is apparently far safer than trying to win her praise – for ‘just being recognized by her might in due course lead to a fall from favor and a brush with death’.

A computer science graduate, Yo-jong doesn’t reserve her bloodthirsty impulses just for cowering officials. On the few occasions she’s been allowed to show her teeth on the international stage, she’s left little doubt that her finger on Pyongyang’s nuclear button would be every bit as unsettling as her saber-rattling brother’s.

In April last year, the First Sister dropped the sweetness act and warned South Korea that if its military ‘violated even an inch of our territory, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty… and a dreadful attack will be launched’.

The South Korean army, she added, ‘will have to face a miserable fate little short of total destruction’.

As the head of propaganda, she has also demonstrated a knack for concocting particularly vile blasts against her nation’s enemies.

When, 2014, South Korea elected their first female leader, Pyongyang state media carried quotes calling her a ‘wicked sycophant’, ‘dirty old prostitute’ and ‘capricious whore’.

President Obama was outrageously branded a ‘wicked black monkey’, and a gay High Court justice in Australia was labelled a ‘disgusting old lecher with a 40-odd-year-long career of homosexuality’.

All of the comments were either written or signed off by Yo-jong.

Certainly, she’s come a long way since 2011 when her brother succeeded their father. At the time, few people outside Pyongyang even knew her name.

North Korea is also a staunchly patriarchal society. And one in which, for all its socialist pretensions, women generally look after the family at home while the men handle the politics.

Nonetheless Yo-jong’s own parents were said to be the first to recognise she was special. Even if they felt they couldn’t acknowledge it in public – her father instead elevating her underwhelming, basketball-obsessed brother.

Kim Jong-il had seven children by four women, either wives or concubines, but he reserved his chief affection for a dancer named Ko Yong-hui who bore him both Jong-un and Yo-jong.

Yo-jong’s own parents were said to be the first to recognise she was special. Even if they felt they couldn’t acknowledge it in public. (Pictured: Female North Korean soldiers march in parade).

They and elder brother Kim Jong-chul lived in the ruling family’s gated compound, given every luxury including the best food and toys money could buy, while their countrymen and women languished in poverty.

Up to the early 2000s, Jong-chul was all but set to succeed their father – until it was announced in 2009 that he wasn’t.

According to the family’s sushi chef, his father suddenly decided Jong-chul was ‘no good because he is like a little girl’.

And while Jong-chul reportedly now lives a quiet life in Pyongyang, appearing at occasional Eric Clapton concerts as far afield as Singapore and London, the actual ‘little girl’ in the family was clearly made of sterner stuff.

As a child, she was addressed by her proud parents as ‘sweet princess’ despite having a reputation for being strong-willed and stubborn.

Interestingly, the couple referred to their sons as ‘Big Brother’ (Jong-chul) and ‘Little Brother’ (Jong-un), in other words from the perspective of their sister.

Soon after she was born in 1987, she became the ‘axis of the royal family’, always sitting next to her father at meals while her brothers sat further down the table.

By the age of eight she was sufficiently sure of herself to fire her personal aide. Aged nine, she physically dragged her older brother – who was 16 – out of a women-only theatre on their family estate after he sneaked in.

She and her brothers were sent to be schooled in Switzerland, using pseudonyms and pretending to be the children of North Korean diplomats.

Her father was a psychopath who had his own half-brother Hyon murdered in 2007 to protect his children’s succession right. In the 1980s he attempted to assassinate the South Korean president and blew up a passenger plane in mid-air as one of many terrorist acts.

Lee says Jong-un and Yo-jong have clearly both inherited his murderous instincts. Indeed, Jong-un is suspected of having his own half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, assassinated in Kuala Lumpur airport with nerve agent in 2017.

Quite what his sister would be capable of is yet to be seen. But in the meantime she remains an increasingly powerful and vindictive presence in the background.

Even aged 21, when she was spotted trailing her father to an important meeting with Bill Clinton, it is thought she was already playing a key role in government.

And, unlike her Supreme Leader brother, she can speak English – a notable advantage when it comes to global politics.

When, during a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2018, the US delegation cracked a joke, she laughed while Kim Jong-un stared blankly ahead, clearly not understanding.

This may be one of the reasons as to why Jong-un clearly depends on his sister and keeps her close.

During the funeral eulogy for Kim Jong-il in 2011, his daughter – evidently overcome with emotion – suddenly left the official line-up.

For anyone else, such an outrageous break with protocol at a sacred ceremony would have been considered even worse than ‘half-hearted clapping’ and punishable by death.

But, from the earliest days of her brother’s rule, Yo-jong has been ‘untouchable’, says Lee.

Not that ordinary North Koreans would have known: state media never mentioned her once until March 2014 and that was only to say she’d cast a vote for her brother in an ‘election’.

She was mentioned twice more that month when she accompanied Jong-un to concerts. On both occasions, her name came last in the list of more than a dozen attendees and with no reference to her ‘blue blood’.

All considered then, it’s hardly surprising that her private life remains a mystery.

In 2018, during the trip to South Korea for the Winter Olympics, she appeared on one occasion without a coat and seemed to have a slight bulge around her abdomen.

Intelligence analysts speculated that she might be pregnant and South Korean media claimed she confirmed as much to Olympics officials. As to the likely father, she reportedly married Choe Song, a government official’s son, in 2014. It’s also claimed she had a child in 2015.

According to Lee, Yo-jong and her brother have devised a ‘good cop, bad cop’ strategy on the world stage whereby she employs her femininity and deceptive charm to offset Jong-un’s surly aggression.

But while it might publicly appear that she’s in a subservient role – standing happily aside and handing her brother a pen for him to sign the historic joint statement with President Trump in Singapore in 2018, for example – once again, appearances can be deceptive.

In 2019, Jong-un took a long train ride to Vietnam for a second meeting with Trump. He and his sister were caught on camera at a rest-stop during the journey, standing by themselves as he had a smoke and she held up a crystal ashtray for him with both hands.

Some commentators said it smacked of her subservience but in fact, says Lee, she was making sure he left no cigarette butts bearing traces of his DNA for foreign intelligence services to examine.

‘No one else, aside from his wife, has such intimate access to the Supreme Leader,’ says Lee.

But will she be loyal forever?

Just as her butter-wouldn’t-melt appearance hides a woman who kills on command and revels in vile abuse, perhaps nothing about Kim Yo-jong can be taken for granted.