The development, if true, likely further cements her status as the secretive country’s second-most powerful figure.

Speaking to lawmakers in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Defence Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said Ms Kim is likely now in charge of the Organisation and Guidance Department (OGD) of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party (WPK), the party body that deals with ideological indoctrination, party organisation and political appointments.

Experts say the OGD is also responsible for monitoring the estimated three million members of the WPK to make sure they are sufficiently loyal to Mr Kim and respect the teachings of the North Korean regime.

Ms Kim has for years been a trusted aide and confidante to her brother.

She previously served as one of North Korea’s top propagandists and is now an alternate to the Politburo – the senior body of North Korea’s ruling party.

While North Korea and the ruling Workers’ Party often do not publicly proclaim leadership changes, experts and analysts had speculated previously that Ms Kim may have been put in charge of the Organisation and Guidance Department earlier this year, based on her increasing portfolio of responsibilities.

Mr Jeong’s comments appear in line with last week’s assessment by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) that Mr Kim had decided to delegate more of his powers to senior officials surrounding him, including Ms Kim, in order to ease his workload.

Mr Kim historically has kept a gruelling schedule filled with public appearances, but he disappeared a handful of times from the public eye earlier this year, sometimes for weeks on end.

He also reportedly keeps a very unhealthy lifestyle.

North Korea is a notoriously opaque country without a free press, so absences that would be unusual in most of the world can occur in Pyongyang without official explanation.

In fact, South Korea’s official assessments regarding Ms Kim’s new job title come amid reports she was absent during multiple important government and party meetings this summer.

It’s not clear if her apparent disappearance is tied to her work earlier this summer, when she oversaw the destruction of an office used for dialogue between the two Koreas.

The bombastic statement was believed to be in response to defectors sending anti-North Korean propaganda from inside of South Korea into North Korean territory.

Several experts believe Ms Kim’s rising profile has been part of a carefully choreographed publicity campaign by North Korean state media to signal that she’s being groomed for something, but have been loath to connect her rising role to any speculation about Mr Kim’s demise.

Representative Kim Byung-kee, who attended the NIS briefing last week, said he was told that Mr Kim is still the ultimate authority in North Korea and exercises “absolute power”.

When asked about Mr Kim’s potential succession plans, Mr Jeong told South Korean lawmakers Monday it would be “inappropriate for me to officially speak about that”.