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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and first lady Ri Sol-ju view a celebratory performance for Lunar New Year’s Day at the Samjiyon Theater in Pyongyang on Jan. 25. Circled next to Ri Sol-ju is Kim Kyoung-hui, widow of the late Jang Song-thaek, whom Kim Jong-un had executed in December 2013. (KCNA)

Kim Kyong-hui, a former secretary at the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and the paternal aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has appeared publicly for the first time since the execution of her husband Jang Song-thaek, former vice chairman of the National Defence Commission of North Korea.

Kim Jong-un “appreciated together with his wife Ri Sol-ju the performance for celebrating the Lunar New Year's Day at the Samjiyon Theater [on Jan. 25],” reported the Rodong Sinmun in a front-page article published on Jan. 26. “Among the audience were Choe Ryong-hae, Kim Kyong-hui, Ri Il-hwan, Jo Yong-won, Kim Yo-jong and Hyon Song-wol.” In the photographs accompanying the article, one can see Kim Kyong-hui sitting between Kim Jong-un’s wife Ri Sol-ju, who was seated to her husband’s left, and Kim Jong-un’s younger sister Kim Yo-jong, vice director of the WPK Central Committee’s Propaganda and Agitation Department.

Former Secretary Kim Kyong-hui is the younger sister of Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un’s father, and the widow of Jang Song-thaek, former vice chairman of North Korea’s National Defence Commission who was executed in December 2013. This is the first time that North Korean media has reported on Kim Kyong-hui’s whereabouts after she attended a Worker-Peasant Red Guards parade held in celebration of the 65th anniversary of the founding of North Korea on Sept. 9, 2013. It is also Kim’s first public appearance since Jang Song-thaek’s execution, which had previously prompted South Korean and foreign media to report rumors that Kim Kyong-hui might also be purged.

The oldest living heir of the “Mt. Paektu Bloodline,” or the Kim dynasty, Kim Kyong-hui’s first public appearance in six years suggests that symbolic political efforts to promote “unity in the Mt. Paektu Bloodline” are underway in North Korea. Using phrases like “our destiny, future, and the banner of all our triumph and glory” or “the symbol of our country’s strength and the entire fate of our people,” the Rodong Sinmun lavishly extolled Kim Jong-un in its Jan. 26 article.

Coming in the wake of Kim Jong-un’s numerous visits to Mt. Paektu last year, during which he ordered a marching tour of Mt. Paektu’s revolutionary battle sites, the move appears to be aimed at encouraging the “offensive spirit of Mt. Paektu,” a slogan that Kim previously highlighted as the ideological banner of the “frontal breakthrough offensive” at last year’s 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the WPK. In a front-page column published on Jan. 21, the Rodong Sinmun previously emphasized the “offensive spirit of Mt. Paektu” as the “epitome of the history of the Korean revolution” that stands as a “fundamental guarantee for earlier building of a powerful socialist country by our own efforts and style” and the “banner of struggle and advance for the victory in the on-going offensive for making a breakthrough head-on.”

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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