Kim Jong-un’s sister handed role as propaganda chief in major North Korea reshuffle

Kim Yo-jong is believed to have been removed from her position last year after Donald Trump walked out of Hanoi summit

Kim Jong-un and his sister, Kim Yo-jong, attend a meeting with South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in, at the Peace House in the truce village of Panmunjom, inside the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas (Korea Summit Press Pool/Pool via Reuters)

Kim Jong-un has reinstated his sister Kim Yo-jong to North Korea’s key decision-making body as chief propagandist.

Ms Kim represents the main appointment after the dictator carried out a significant reshuffle of the State Affairs Commission).

A long-time advisor to her brother, the move completes a year-long transformation for Ms Kim since she was reportedly demoted in the aftermath of US president Donald Trump scrapping talks over denuclearisation at Hanoi Summit.

After appearing to absorb the blame, she has completed numerous public rehabilitation exercises, with her promotion confirmed at a meeting presided over by Mr Kim, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

“The restoration is part of Kim Yo-jong’s recent rise within the North’s hierarchy,” Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector and researcher in Seoul, said.

Ms Kim, thought to be in her early 30s, was captured earlier this year on the snow-covered Paektu Mountain where she was filmed riding white horses alongside her brother.

The video of the pair at the sacred location was subsequently labelled by state television as a “great event of weighty importance in the Korean revolution”.

Ms Kim’s title is vice-minister of foreign affairs but she is believed to be chief of public announcements and the move follows her public condemnation of the South Korean government.

She labelled South Korean leaders “gangsters” after protests against the North’s recent live-fire drills.

“As far as I know, the South side is also fond of joint military exercises and it is preoccupied with all the disgusting acts like purchasing ultra-modern military hardware,” she said.

“They mean that they need to get militarily prepared but we should be discouraged from military exercises.

“Such a gangster-like assertion can only be expected from those without a normal way of thinking.”

Mr Kim, chairman of the SAC, replaced five of the decision-making body’s 13 members in total.

Ri Son-gwon, who was declared North Korea’s top diplomat in January, has also been elected as an alternate member of the political bureau alongside Ms Kim.