Kim Heung-kwang, who defected to South Korea in 2004, has revealed to the Wall Street Journal that “his sources inside the country — whom he says he pays for information — are saying that Ms. Kim has been dead for nearly a year.”
Kim Kyong-hui is the sister of deceased leader Kim Jong-iI, and according to reports has not been seen in public since September 2013. She was married to Jang Song-thaek, a powerful figure in North Korea who in December 2013 was put on trial and executed by his nephew for allegedly planning a military coup against him.
In April, South Korea’s Yonhap News reported that Kyong-hui had been edited out of a rerun of a documentary film which was aired in February on the North’s state television, a move it said “could reinforce speculation that she has been ousted from power.” However, in a confusing move, the documentary ran again in April with the scenes reinstated.
On Thursday Yonhap reported that Kim Jong-un’s younger sister Kim Yo-jong has been appointed a deputy director of the Workers' Party of Korea, and is being prepared to take on the supporting role to the leader which Kyong-hui once played.
