North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Saturday appointed his sister Kim Yo-Jong to the post of the alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee, the top decision-making body of the country, Bloomberg reported. With this, Kim Yo-jong is believed to have replaced her aunt Kim Kyong Hee – a key decision maker when former leader Kim Jong-il was the ruler.

Apart from her, Kim Jong Sik and Ro Pyong Chol – key members of Kim Jong-un’s banned rocket programme – were also promoted, Reuters reported. North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho was made the vote-carrying member of the politburo.

The promotions were decided during the Workers’ Party convention on Saturday in Pyongyang where the North Korean leader called for nuclear arms development to continue in order to defend against the “imperialists’ nuclear blackmail” of the United States. North Korea’s nuclear weapons were a “powerful deterrent firmly safeguarding the peace and security in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia,” he added.