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Kim-Trump summit: Dictator's sister holds ashtray during cigarette break on journey to Vietnam

Exchange filmed during stopover at Chinese railway station

Tim Wyatt
Tuesday 26 February 2019 14:41 GMT
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Kim Jong-un's sister forced to hold crystal ashtray whil North Korean dictator smokes in Vietnam

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister held a crystal ashtray for him while he smoked during his journey to the Vietnam summit with Donald Trump.

The dictator was filmed pacing around a railway station in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, while Kim Yo-jong followed him holding the ashtray in two hands.

Mr Kim was making a brief stop at the station during his 65-hour, 2,500-mile journey from the North Korean capital Pyongyang aboard a bulletproof train.

He has since arrived at the border of Vietnam and got into his personal armoured Mercedes limousine to finish the journey towards Hanoi.

Mr Trump and the North Korean leader are due to hold a second round of talks over the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

The leader’s 30-year-old sister is the director of North Korea's propaganda department and has been the driving force behind a renewed push to create a personality cult around her brother similar to that of their grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who founded North Korea.

She first shot to international prominence after she led her country’s delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea when she was pictured warmly celebrating with her South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in as an all-Korean Olympic team marched into the opening ceremony.

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Thought to be in her early 30s, Ms Kim is an increasingly prominent figure in her brother’s government and is likely to be the most powerful woman in North Korea.

She is known to be one of her brother's closest confidants, thanks to a shared childhood growing up in a Swiss boarding school.

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