North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was once again seen with a mysterious female aide at a major event Thursday who was carrying a large handbag and trusted to secure his latest nuclear doctrine speech, according to newly released state TV footage. 

NK News was first to report earlier this year on the presence of the new aide, who may be a relative of Kim given their close resemblance, but her identity remains unknown.

In a report Friday on a massive outdoor concert and banquet held the previous night to celebrate the country’s 74th National Day, Korean Central Television (KCTV) showed the woman clearer and closer than in previous footage.

She appeared to hover around Kim’s table at the concert and stand as he entered the outdoor venue together with the DPRK leader’s top event logistics aide Hyon Song Wol and sister Kim Yo Jong —  an increasingly powerful official in her own right.

Earlier in the day, she was seen holding a folder likely containing Kim’s speech on the country’s changing nuclear weapons policy at a session of the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA).

The new aide took on a similar role managing flowers given to Kim at another major outdoor concert on July 27, according to KCTV footage, and carrying one of his political speeches to him on stage in February in her first known appearance in state media. 

She has typically been seen carrying a handbag, possibly containing items the North Korean leader needs on call at all times such as his phone, cigarettes or medicine. 

State media has yet to mention her by name, and intelligence about her identity has yet to surface in foreign media. Kim Jong Un is thought to have at least two half sisters named Kim Sol Song and Kim Chun Song, both born in the early-to-mid 1970s. The mystery woman appears to be younger than these two women would be today, however. 

JETS, DRONES AND BANQUETS

The Sept. 9 National Day holiday celebrations consisted of a large-scale outdoor concert for “citizens from all social strata, youth and students of the capital city” and separately a private banquet for “labor innovators and persons of merit who place their duties as a citizen before their rights to enjoyment.”

Kim Jong Un attended both events with his wife Ri Sol Ju on Thursday night outside the Mansudae Assembly Hall, where he gave his nuclear weapons speech at the SPA session earlier that day.

NK Pro first reported on evidence of stages and big screens being set up in the Mansudae area in mid-August, and NK News reported early Friday morning before state media broke the story that a source in Pyongyang witnessed signs the major event took place there Thursday night.

The concert prominently featured new top singer Jong Hong Ran, who appeared to mimic South Korean K-pop stars by smiling and waving to the camera in a close-up shot next to the stage. 

Similar to other nighttime events Kim attended in recent years, the concert kicked off with a paratrooper landing demonstration carrying a large LED flag of the DPRK and flyovers of military jets blasting colorful flares.

Of the 20 minutes spent on the concert in the KCTV broadcast of Thursday night’s events, around 8 minutes were of Kim Jong Un entering and exiting the venue to long spells of cheers and applause. 

Honored guests of the concert included retired top officials Kim Yong Nam and Pak Pong Ju.

KCTV had not aired video of the outdoor tent banquet as of Friday afternoon, but a Rodong Sinmun report praised the guests of honor — over a hundred “persons of merit” — as “true representatives of the people and genuine patriots” who are “taking pains and making strenuous efforts to relieve the country of its heavy burdens.” 

The focus of the events on ordinary people who “contribute to the prosperity and development” of the country comes after Kim similarly highlighted the role of civil defense forces from factories and farms across the country as well as health and emergency workers at a paramilitary parade held on the Sept. 9 holiday last year.

Meanwhile, state media announced Friday morning that there will be another concert and circus show Friday night at the outdoor stages in the Mansudae area as well as a fireworks show for “youth and students” in Kim Il Sung Square.

Edited by Arius Derr