The aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was shown again on state television Sunday in a re-run of a documentary, reinforcing views that she hasn’t been removed from the country’s power elite despite the execution of her once powerful husband.
Kim Kyong-hui, the current leader’s aunt and younger sister of late former leader Kim Jong-il, has not been seen in public since her husband, Jang Song-thaek, was executed last December on charges of treason.
The last time she was seen on television was April 29, when the North’s Korean Central TV ran a documentary film about Kim Jong-un’s efforts to promote sports. In the documentary, the 68-year-old aunt was spotted close to her nephew at a football stadium.
On Sunday, the TV station broadcast the same documentary film.
Speculation about the aunt’s removal from power had emerged after the TV station replaced footage of her in a separate documentary aired on April 15. North Korea has often indicated the purge of high-ranking officials by deleting scenes in which they appear.
The aunt, a former senior secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, is now believed to have stepped down from her official posts due to health problems.
Earlier this month, a source familiar with affairs inside the communist state claimed that a Korean-American cardiologist arrived in Pyongyang late last month to treat the aunt who has been known to have a heart disease, prompting speculation that she may have fallen into critical condition.(Yonhap)
