Kim Yo Jong: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister

Explore the powerful role of Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader, and her influence in the regime's politics.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, has been promoted in a rare party congress of the reclusive nation, as reported by state media on Tuesday (February 24, 2026). 

Previously the deputy department director, she has now become a full department director, said Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). 

But who is Ms Jong, and why does she have so much power in the functioning of North Korea? Let’s take a look. 

Kim Yo Jong was born in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, with her birth year reported as either 1987 (South Korean intelligence) or 1989 (U.S. Treasury Department). She is the youngest child of former leader Kim Jong Il and Ko Yong Hui.

From the late 1990s to early 2000s, she studied and lived in Bern, Switzerland, with her brother and now the leader of the nation, Kim Jong Un. She is reported to have attended the Liebefeld-Steinhölzli public school under heavy security with the pseudonym “Pak Mi-hyang”

After returning to North Korea, she graduated with a degree in computer science from Kim Il Sung University in 2007.