Kim Jong Un's Sister's Rise Continues

Kim Jong Un's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, was appointed to North Korea's politburo in 2017 but is believed to have been removed last year after a second Kim-Trump summit fell through. Now she's been reinstated, the Guardian reports. Kim Yo Jong has long been a close aide to her brother, but is recently rising again within the country's hierarchy, experts say. On Saturday, she was reappointed to the central committee's political bureau as an alternate member; the Korea Herald describes it as the top policymaking body in the country and says Kim Yo Jong's reappointment marks her "comeback."

Other top officials were also reshuffled that day, with Kim Jong Un presiding over the meeting during which Kim Yo Jong's appointment was confirmed. She was also recently appointed first vice-department director of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party, and just last month started issuing statements under her own name. Also at Saturday's meeting, the party adopted a resolution to take "more thorough state measures to protect life and safety of our people from the great worldwide epidemic disease" of COVID-19. North Korea officially claims zero coronavirus cases, but the Korea Times reports some observers think the country might be hushing up an outbreak. (More Kim Yo Jong stories.)