In 2013, Kim Jong-Un executed his influential married uncle Jang Song-Thaek. In connection with this, the North Korean dictator's aunt Kim Kyong-Hui, the wife of the executed, also disappeared from the public eye.

"Many North Koreans have assumed that Kim Kyong-Hui has gone into exile or even been murdered after her husband's death," Oliver Hotham, editor of NK News who is monitoring North Korea, told the BBC.

But now it turns out that Kim Kyong-Hui not only lives, but is left - or possibly back - in the finery. In a photo from the state-run North Korean news agency KCNA, the fastener appears to be sitting away from the nephew of an official New Year celebration.

To the BBC, Oliver Hotham says that the placement suggests that the fastener has an advanced role, possibly as an adviser.

- It is also a reminder of how screwed and brutal North Korea is. After all, she sits next to the man who ordered her husband's execution.