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In a departure from precedent, Kim Jong Un's regime has seen more women appear among the elite ranks of North Korean leadership. Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, received a promotion at the recent Ninth Party Congress. Choe Son Hui continues to serve as the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs in North Korea. Kim Jong Un's daughter, Kim Ju Ae, has made several public appearances alongside her father, including at missile launches and traditional celebrations. What is the role of these women, and what is Kim Jong Un's motivation for putting them in positions of power? Are they exceptions to North Korea's traditionally patriarchal societal values, or does this signal a shift for women more generally?
In this upcoming webinar, speakers Ken Gause and Anna Fifield will explore the rise and influence of the women in the North Korean regime and within Kim Jong Un's leadership circle. Please register HERE to receive the link.
About the Speakers
Ken Gause is an analyst and senior advisor of the North Korea Program at the Institute of Defense Analyses. He holds a MA in Soviet and East European Studies from George Washington University (1987) and a BA in Political Science and Russian from Vanderbilt University (1982). Before joining IDA, Mr. Gause was an analyst, research director, and director of the Adversary Analytics Program at the CNA Corporation (1996-2024). Before that he was an research assistant at the Brookings Institution and RAND Corporation. After beginning his career as a Sovietologist, he shifted his focus to North Korea in 1988. He is the author of numerous articles and several books on the North Korean leadership apparatus and the Kim family, including North Korea: A Case Study of Asymmetric Relations (2021); The North Korean House of Cards: Leadership Dynamics Under Kim Jong-un (2015); Coercion, Control, Surveillance, and Punishment: An Examination of the North Korean Police State (2012); and North Korea under Kim Chong-il: Power, Politics, and Prospects for Change (2010).
Anna Fifield spent eight years as a foreign correspondent covering North Korea for the Washington Post and the Financial Times, and visited the country a dozen times. Her book The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, has been translated into 24 languages. For the past three years she was the Washington Post's Asia-Pacific editor. She was a Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University, studying how change happens in closed societies, and in 2018 won Stanford University’s Shorenstein Prize for excellence in reporting on Asia.