Under Kim Jong Un, she was portrayed as a link between the original guerrilla generation and the current leadership.

During World War II, she was a member of the Soviet 88th Separate Rifle Brigade,[4] to which Kim Il Sung was also attached.

She had married him, the night school teacher of her village, on the advice of her parents and fought together with him in Choe Yong Gon's unit.

Paektu, with no address, and grew up with sounds of gunfire of the anti-Japanese war as a lullaby.We women guerrillas felt very sorry we could not obtain new clothes for him who was born as the Shining Star of Korea.

North Korean propaganda put effort in showing Ri in close terms with Kim Jong Un.

[4] After the liberation of Korea, she became the chairwoman of the management committee of a cooperative farm in Yonsan County in North Hwanghae Province.

Kim Jong Un visited her grave later that same month at the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery in Mount Taesong on 15 November to lay a wreath.