Il Nuovo Postiglione - North Korea ruling party promotes Kim Jong Un's younger sister

Thousands of party elites have packed the capital Pyongyang for a once-in-five-years summit of the ruling Workers' Party, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from diplomacy to war planning.

Kim Yo Jong -- long considered one of her brother's closest lieutenants -- was promoted to department director within the party's apex central committee, the Korean Central News Agency said.

Although it was not clear which department she would lead, she has previously held a senior role within the party's propaganda unit.

Kim Yo Jong has in recent years emerged as one of the most powerful figures in North Korea, playing a highly visible role in diplomacy, nuclear negotiations and other matters of state.

"Kim Yo Jong is one of the very few people Kim Jong Un can trust and rely on," said Ahn Chan-il, a researcher originally from North Korea.

"She also served as a working-level official for Kim's summits with Trump in Singapore and Hanoi. She is experienced and seasoned," he told AFP.

Kim Yo Jong burst on to the international scene in 2018, when she was dispatched to Seoul as North Korea's envoy for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

With that trip, she became one of the first members of the ruling Kim dynasty to set foot in the South since the Korean War.

Since then she has gained a reputation for her vitriolic denunciations of Washington and Seoul.

She once derided the government of former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol as a "faithful dog" of the United States.

Her tone has softened somewhat since South Korea's incumbent leader Lee Jae Myung -- who has sought to mend ties with the North -- took office last year.

Kim Yo Jong's latest advancement "amounts to promotion to ministerial rank," said Lim Eul-chul from the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.

- Rapid rise -

Remarkably little is known about Kim Yo Jong given her prominent role in North Korea's dealings with the outside world.

Born in 1988, according to the South Korean government, she is one of three children born to Kim's father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, and his third known partner, former dancer Ko Yong Hui.

She was educated in Switzerland alongside her brother and rose rapidly up the ranks once he inherited power after their father's death in 2011.

Pyongyang has never officially disclosed any information about Kim Yo Jong's marital status or children.

Rare footage released by state media last year showed her attending an art show with two young children.

The Workers' Party congress offers a rare glimpse into the political workings of reclusive North Korea, and is widely seen as a forum for Kim to flex his grip on power.

It is just the ninth time the gathering has been called to order under North Korea's decades-spanning Kim dynasty.

There is keen interest in whether the congress might also promote leader Kim Jong Un's teenage daughter Kim Ju Ae.

Kim Ju Ae has emerged as a clear frontrunner to continue the family dynasty, according to South Korea's national intelligence service.

US President Donald Trump stepped up his courtship of Kim Jong Un during a tour of Asia last year, saying he was "100 percent" open to a meeting.

But the North Korean leader has so far largely shunned efforts to resume top-level diplomatic dialogue.

C.Albano--INP