Kim Jong-il's sister accompanies leader on inspection trip: report

SEOUL, Aug. 8 (Yonhap) -- Kim Kyong-hui, the only known sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, accompanied her brother on a recent inspection trip to a chemical factory, the North's media said Monday. It was her first public appearance in two months following reports in South Korea that she was sick. A South Korean tourist spotted her at a Moscow airport in early June, walking with a slight stoop, according to an intelligence source in Seoul. On Monday, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the 65-year-old sister accompanied her brother on an inspection visit to the February 8 Vinalon Complex, a chemical textile factory. She currently heads the ruling Workers' Party's light industry department. She and her husband, Jang Song-thaek, a key party member, are known to be big supporters of the leader's third son and heir-apparent Kim Jong-un in the ongoing hereditary succession process. North Korea touts vinalon, a synthetic fiber, as the material of "Juche," or the country's primary ideology of self-reliance.