The daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made another public appearance, this time with missile scientists and more honorary titles like her father’s “most beloved” or “precious” daughter. She’s only about 10 years old, but new photos of her are deepening the debate about whether she’s being groomed as the tyrant’s successor.
The daughter, who believed to be the second child of Kim, named Ju Ae and about 9 or 10 years old, was first introduced to the outside world last weekend in state media photos showing her watching the North’s ICBM launch with her parents and other senior officials. The daughter, who was wearing a white coat and red shoes, was shown walking hand in hand with Kim past a huge missile loaded onto a launch truck and looking at a raised weapon.
On Sunday, North Korea’s Central News Agency mentioned her for a second time, saying she and Kim took group photos with scientists, officials and others involved in what it called the test launch of their Hwasong-17 ICBM.
KCNA described her as Kim’s “most beloved” or “precious” daughter, a more honorary title than his earlier description of (Kim’s) “beloved” daughter in his November 19 dispatch. Photos released by state media showed the daughter in a long black coat holding her father’s arm as the two posed for a photo. Following her mother Ri Sol Ju, who was not visible in any of the photos on Sunday, she had a more mature appearance than she did in her introduction a week ago.
Some photos showed them standing in the middle of a line of uniformed soldiers before a massive missile atop a launch truck. Others showed Kim’s daughter clapping, exchanging handshakes with a soldier or talking to her father as people applauded in the background.
“This is certainly amazing. The photo of Kim Ju Ae standing next to her father while being celebrated by technicians and scientists involved in the latest ICBM launch would support the idea that this is the beginning of its positioning as a possible successor,” said Ankit Panda, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“State media stressing her father’s love for her further underscore this I think. Finally, his two initial public appearances have been in the context of strategic nuclear weapons, the crown jewels of North Korea’s national defense capabilities. That doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me,” Panda said.
After her first public appearance, South Korea’s spy service told lawmakers it assessed that the girl in the photo is Kim’s second child, who is about 10 years old and whose name is Ju Ae. The National Intelligence Service said her appearance matched information that she is taller and bigger than other girls of the same age. He also said her performance seemed to reflect Kim’s determination to protect the safety of future generations in North Korea in the face of a confrontation with the United States.
South Korean media previously speculated that Kim has three children, born in 2010, 2013 and 2017., and that the first child is a boy, while the third is a girl. The revealed daughter is most likely the one retired NBA star Dennis Rodman saw during his 2013 trip to Pyongyang. After that visit, Rodman told the British newspaper TI have Guardian that he and Kim had a “relaxing moment by the sea” with the leader’s family and that he held Kim’s daughter, named Ju Ae.
North Korea has not mentioned the other two children reported by Kim. But speculation that her eldest child is a boy has led some experts to question how a daughter can be Kim’s successor given the deeply male-dominated patriarchal nature of North Korean society. Kim is a third-generation member of the family that has ruled North Korea for more than seven decades, with his father and grandfather successively ruling the country before inheriting power in late 2011.
“We have been told that Kim has three children, including possibly a son. If this is true, and if we assume that the as-yet-unrevealed male child will be the heir, is Ju Ae really the most ‘precious’ of Kim, from a succession point of view?”said Soo Kim, a security analyst at the California-based RAND Corporation. “I think it’s too early to draw any conclusions.”
She said Kim Jong Un may find his daughter’s introduction an effective distraction while conditioning Washington, Seoul and others to live with the North Korean nuclear threat, as “Ju Ae’s spectacle seems to overshadow the escalation of the seriousness of the nuclear and missile threat from North Korea.” She added that by parading her daughter, Kim Jong Un may also want to tell his people that nuclear weapons are the only guarantor for the country’s future.
In comments carried by state media on Sunday, Kim called the Hwasong-17 “the world’s strongest strategic weapon” and said his country’s ultimate goal is to possess “the world’s most powerful strategic force.”
Experts say the Hwasong-17 is North Korea’s longest-range missile, designed to attack the continental United States, but it is still under development. Its launch was part of a barrage of missile tests that North Korea says were aimed at issuing a warning about US-South Korean military exercises it views as an invasion test.
“Kim may be signaling to other North Korean elites that he is advising his daughter for a leadership role,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“Giving it such an early and public start is unusual, but it reflects the historical and political importance that Kim attaches to a nuclear missile that can reach the United States,” he added.
Analyst Cheong Seong-Chang of the Sejong Institute in South Korea said Kim Jong Un cannot make his son his successor if he believes he lacks leadership. Cheong said Kim might be avoiding potential rejection by choosing a daughter as fourth-generation leader, so he likely brought her to a successful ICBM launch event to help public loyalty to him run smoothly. towards his daughter.
“When a king has many sons, it is natural for him to make his most beloved son as his successor,” Cheong said. “Kim Ju Ae is expected to occasionally appear at Kim Jong Un’s public events and take succession training.”
Revealing the young Ju Ae came as a big surprise to foreign experts, as Kim Jong Un and his father Kim Jong Il were first mentioned in state media dispatches after they became adults. Cheong, however, said that Kim Jong Il had Kim Jong Un in mind as his heir when his daughter was 8 years old. Cheong cited his conversations with Kim Jong Un’s aunt and her husband, who defected to the United States.
The fact that the South Korean spy agency said that Ju Ae is about 10 years old despite being born in 2013 could be related to the country’s age calculation system that generally puts people’s ages at one or two years. greater.
(with information from AP)
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Source-www.infobae.com