By the following year, she and her husband were regularly seen in photos as part of the young Kim’s official entourage, a sure sign of their membership of the inner circle. One picture showed the three riding down a supermarket escalator together, standing behind Kim Jong-il in what was one of his last public appearances before his death. “The Escalator of Evil”, as some Western pundits have jokingly put it, has now reportedly become a shrine for some North Koreans, who pay homage to the late leader there.