Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters
The outpouring of love and care that North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un is publicly lavishing on his (roughly) 10-year-old daughter, Ju Ae, could spell trouble for his controversial, outspoken younger sister, Kim Yo Jong.
While Ju Ae’s image is appearing in a propaganda blitz portending her rise to the top of the North Korean hierarchy, auntie Yo Jong may have to watch her back, David Straub, a former senior diplomat in the American embassy in Seoul, told The Daily Beast.
“Kim had both his uncle and his half-brother murdered,” Straub said. It was six years ago, he noted, that Kim’s older half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, was killed by a VX chemical in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. “I’ll bet everyone in the Kim clan remembered, perhaps especially Yo Jong.”