North Korea chief’s sister to focus on with South

The influential sister of North Korean chief Kim Jong-un is to abet Friday’s opening ceremony of the Chilly climate Olympic Games, which are being held in the South, ministers in Seoul declare.

Kim Yo-jong is the youngest daughter of monotonous chief Kim Jong-il and her position became bolstered final year when she became promoted to the politburo.

Both Koreas will march below one flag on the gap ceremony.

The North’s participation has been considered as a thawing of bilateral ties.

Nonetheless, consultants declare it is miles unlikely to contain any impact on the North’s nuclear ambitions.

The US believes the North is using the Olympics for propaganda capabilities and is sending Vice-President Mike Pence to the gap ceremony in Pyeongchang to counter it.

« We’re travelling to the Olympics to invent definite that that North Korea doesn’t exercise the extremely fantastic symbolism in the backdrop of the Chilly climate Olympics to paper over the truth about their regime, » he said.

Kim Yo-jong, who shares the linked mom as Kim Jong-un, will accompany the North’s ceremonial head of explain, Kim Yong-nam, whose attendance became announced on the weekend.

A message from her brother?

Analysis: BBC’s Laura Bicker in Seoul

Right here is an acceptable surprise. There had been speculation Kim Yo-jong can be half of the delegation but few idea it can well in actuality happen. She could maybe be the first instant Kim family member to tainted the border. It’s miles being considered right here as a signal that Kim Jong-un is inquisitive about making improvements to ties with South Korea.

Kim Yo-jong is one of Kim Jong-un’s closest aides and a few are speculating that she will be able to be able to be bringing a message from her brother.

Nonetheless there fundamentally is a various of boundaries to beat if she is to invent it to Pyeongchang. She is concentrated by US sanctions for alleged human rights abuses, even though she is now not on the UN Security Council commute blacklist.

There is also the request of of how she will be able to fetch to the Games. Seoul has needed to ask particular permission from the US and others in the world community to permit North Korean athletes and performers to commute south by bus and ferry. They could per chance desire to invent so again and this time it can well be for a member of Kim Jong-un’s fetch family.

Most of the 280-member North Korean delegation, including a crew of cheerleaders, arrived in the South on Wednesday.

The delegation, led by North Korean Sports Minister Kim Il-guk, entails 229 cheerleaders, four officers from the Nationwide Olympic Committee, 26 taekwondo demonstrators and 21 journalists.

The crew arrived by strategy of a western border at 09:28 native time (00:26 GMT), the Yonhap records agency reported.

• North Korea on the Chilly climate Olympics: All it is most lifelike to know

Only 10 athletes will compete for the North on the Games, alongside with one other 12 as half of a unified Korean ladies’s ice hockey crew.

Believed born in 1987, Kim Yo-jong is alleged to be very discontinuance to Kim Jong-un, who’s set four years older than her. The two of them lived and studied in Berne, Switzerland, on the linked time.

She is reportedly married to the son of Choe Ryong-hae, the extremely fantastic social gathering secretary, and is a senior official in the ruling Workers’ Celebration.

She has been in the highlight sporadically as of late, with her foremost job being to defend her brother’s image by strategy of her position in the social gathering’s propaganda division.

She remains blacklisted by the US over alleged links to human rights abuses in North Korea.