Published: Less than 40 min ago
For the second time in a week, North Korea’s dictator has shown off his “most beloved” child. The appearances put ants in the heads of outside experts, who wonder if daughter Ju-Ae is now being raised to be Kim Jong-Un’s successor.
Until recently, the outside world barely knew she existed. But now Ju-Ae has had a prominent role in the closed dictatorship’s tightly controlled news media for two weekends in a row.
On Sunday, text and images were leaked of Kim and Ju-Ae as they attended tests of the Hwasong-17 intercontinental robotic system, according to state news agency KCNA.
“Truly striking”
In last weekend’s reporting, Ju-Ae was introduced as Kim’s beloved child. This time the wording is turned up a notch, and she is called “most loved” and “precious”.
– It is really striking, says Ankit Panda at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the US.
– A photo of Kim Ju-Ae standing next to her father, and being hailed by technicians and scientists involved in the latest robot shooting, lends support to the idea that she is now on her way to the role of possible successor, he told the AP news agency.
About 10 years
The exercise of power and the order of succession in North Korea are shrouded in obscurity to outsiders, but the highest power has ever since the division of the Korean Peninsula in the 1940s been a pure family affair. When the country was formed in 1948, Kim Il-Sung took power and held it until his death in 1994, when his son Kim Jong-Il took over. When he in turn died in 2011, power passed to the youngest son, Kim Jong-Un.
Today, Kim Jong-Un is 40 years old, so he should not need an immediate successor. On the other hand, the daughter seems to be in her 10s, which means she wouldn’t be ready to become a dictator for a while anyway.
How many children Kim Jong-Un has is a secret, but South Korean media estimates that there are three, born in 2010, 2013 and 2017 respectively. Ju-Ae would thus be the middle child.
That image matches what basketball star Dennis Rodman told after a visit to North Korea in 2013. He told the British Guardian that during a few days of vacation by the sea, he had walked around with Kim’s infant Ju-Ae in his arms.