Kim Kyong-hui

, father Kim Il Sung and brother Kim Jong Il Kim was born in Pyongyang on 30 May 1946 to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk. Her mother died when she was four. After her father remarried, she was raised by various surrogates away from the family. After a brief period spent in Jilin Province, China due to the Korean War, Kim returned to Pyongyang with her brother, Kim Jong Il. She entered Kim Il Sung University in 1963, studying political economy. Kim attended the Kim Il Sung Higher Party School in 1966, and went to study at Moscow State University in 1968. ==Career==

Kim's political career began in 1971 with a position in the Korean Democratic Women's Union, and in 1975 she was transferred to the post of vice-director of the International Liaison Department of the Workers' Party of Korea, promoted to first vice-director in 1976. It was the period when North Korea was establishing diplomatic relations with a number of capitalist countries, like Thailand and Singapore, as well as the United Nations. She oversaw the placement of qualified diplomatic personnel during her tenure as International Department vice-director. the first woman in North Korea to achieve this military rank. This coincided with her nephew Kim Jong Un's promotion to the same rank. A day later, the 3rd Conference of the Workers' Party elected her as a member of the Political Bureau, which is the central organization of the party. Kim Kyong-hui later continued to pose as a prominent member of the North Korean leadership under Kim Jong Un. Kim was elected member of the WPK Secretariat and a leading figure of the WPK Organization and Guidance Department (the foremost party department led by her uncle Kim Yong-ju until 1974, and by Kim Jong Il himself from 1974 till his death) at the 4th Party Conference in April 2012. According to South Korean sources, Kim also worked as Kim Jong Il's personal aide. Her influential position in North Korean echelons (also confirmed by Kenji Fujimoto) allowed her to maintain close relations with president Kim Yong-nam of the SPA Presidium, WPK Secretaries Choe Thae-bok and Kim Ki-nam, and Director Kim Yang-gon of the WPK United Front Department. In 2010, Kim opened the first hamburger restaurant in Pyongyang. ==Personal life==

Kim met her future husband, Jang Song-thaek, when she was studying at Kim Il Sung University. She and Jang continued dating after he relocated to Wonsan, allegedly because the Kim family opposed their relationship. The two eventually married in 1972. Kim and Jang had a daughter, Jang Kum-song (1977–2006), who lived overseas in Paris as an international student; she refused an order to return to Pyongyang and then reportedly committed suicide in September 2006 due to her parents' opposition to her relationship with her boyfriend. In the 2010s, Kim Kyong-hui was rumored to be either dead or very ill. According to Paul Fischer, she has suffered from this disease every so often since at least the late 1970s. This has prompted at least one trip into China for rehabilitation. It was suggested that she had a fatal stroke or a heart attack. Some reports claimed she had committed suicide. According to other reports, she underwent surgery for a brain tumour in 2013 and was left in a vegetative state. On 8 December 2013, Jang was publicly expelled from the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. Jang was accused of factionalism, corruption, and a range of misbehaviour that included affairs with other women. On 13 December, it was reported that he had been executed for treason. On 14 December, the Korean Central News Agency released a roster of six top officials appointed to a national committee in charge of organizing a state funeral for Kim Kuk-tae, a former Workers' Party official. The roster included the name of Kim Kyong-hui, indicating she had survived the purge and remained in favour. The status of Kim Kyong-hui's relationship with Jang had been a subject of frequent speculation. Analysts believe that Jang and Kim Kyong-hui had been estranged. In 2016, historical footage of her was aired on North Korean television, indicating that she had not been removed from official history. In 2017, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported that she was alive but receiving medical treatment. In January 2020, Kim appeared in North Korean media for the first time in over six years, attending a Lunar New Year concert with Kim Jong Un. ==See also==