North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister and advisor have been appointed to the country’s top governing body.

Kim Yo Jong was promoted to a position on the State Affairs Commission, amid a raft of changes approved by the Supreme People’s Assembly, the rubber-stamp parliament.

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Kim Yo-Jong first came to the international limelight in 2018, when she became the first member of North Korea’s Kim dynasty to visit South Korea in an official capacity. She was part of the nation’s delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, at which the two countries competed as one team.

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Nine members of the Commission including one of its vice-presidents, Pak Pong Ju, and diplomat Choe Son Hui, a rare senior woman in the North’s hierarchy were dismissed. Choe Son Hui has played a key role in negotiations with the United States.

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The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried images of the eight new appointees on Thursday. Kim Yo-Jong stands out among them for her youth. Also, she is the only woman in the commission.

She has often been seen close to her brother — with whom she went to school in Switzerland — including at his summits with then-US president Donald Trump and the South’s leader Moon Jae-in.

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Her exact political role has always been a matter of speculation. It is believed that she might succeed her brother one day. If she succeeds, it would give the socially conservative North a transition as she will be the first female to lead North Korea.

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Her relatively junior position as a vice department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party gave those declarations an element of ambiguity, and in some cases, she specifically said she was speaking in a personal capacity.

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Kim Yo-Jung has worked at various positions but her new SAC position is by far the most senior post she has held.