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The Sister: The extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most powerful woman in North Korea

The Sister:
The extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most powerful woman in North Korea
AuthorSung-Yoon Lee
SubjectKim Yo Jong, North Korea
GenreNon-fiction, Biography, History
PublisherMacmillan (UK) / PublicAffairs (Hachette) (US)
Publication date
2023
Media typePrint, eBook, Audio Book
Pages304
ISBN9781668635612 9781529073539
OCLC1389274587
951.93052092

The Sister: The extraordinary story of Kim Yo Jong, the most powerful woman in North Korea is a 2023 biography of Kim Yo Jong, the sister, closest deputy, and potential successor to North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un.[1][2][3] It was subsequently published in the United States with the title The Sister: North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, the Most Dangerous Woman in the World.[4] It is written by Sung-Yoon Lee, a scholar of Korean and East Asian studies.[5][6][7] It is regarded as the first book to offer an in-depth portrait of its subject.[1][2][3]

The book received generally positive reviews, praised for being an authoritative, meticulous, and engaging portrait of Kim Yo Jong. It was also valued for the insights it offered into the Kim family's domestic machinations and geopolitical tactics for regime survival.[2][4][8][9][10] Reviewers also noted that the book had to contend with a dearth of information available on Kim Yo Jong, with mixed opinions on whether the attention to small details were astute observations or unnecessary speculation.[8][11][12][4]

The Sister portrays Kim-Yo Jong as the second most powerful person after her brother. She leads her country's foreign policy, and heads the agencies in charge of internal political propaganda and of implementing policy and appointing personnel. The book warns against mistaking her femininity for weakness or amenability, and describes her as cold and ruthless.[13][10][4]

Lee asserts that North Korea is the only of the world's nine nuclear states that has no checks or balances on the leadership; that it has a bellicose stance against other countries including South Korea and the United States; and that it is extremely repressive to its own people. He concludes that this makes Kim Yo Jong one of the most powerful and dangerous leaders in the contemporary world.[13][10][4]

Lee posits her to be best positioned among the Kim family members to succeed her brother, especially if he were incapacitated before his own children had grown up. Were she to become the supreme leader, her personality and track record suggest that she would not be a reformist, and would rule her country with an iron fist much like her predecessors.[8][14][15][12]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Kirkus Reviews 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference The Australian 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference The Korea Times 2022 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference Wall Street Journal 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sang-hun Choe 2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chan 2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shinkman 2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference The Economist 2023-06-22 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Guardian 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Foreign Policy 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Diplomatic Courier 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference International Affairs 2024-01 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference The Times 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jacobin 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Budapest Times 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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