An unprecedented moment. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un revealed his daughter’s existence to the world for the first time, supervising the launch of his latest intercontinental ballistic missile with the girl next to him, according to official photos released on Saturday. Kim Jong-Un has never officially appeared with one of his children.
Dressed in a white down jacket and red shoes, the young woman appears next to her father, holding his hand in certain shots.
Their relationship was confirmed by KCNA, Pyongyang’s only source of information, which indicated that the leader had attended the missile launch accompanied by his “beloved wife and (his) daughter.”
Kim Jong-Un’s family never confirmed by Pyongyang
Amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, Kim Jong-Un and his daughter oversaw the launch of the Hwasong-17 on Friday “successfully”, according to KCNA.
Apart from the images, the North Korean agency did not provide any other information about the identity of Kim Jong-Un’s daughter. Neither her age nor her name have been released.
The official state news agency KCNA had never mentioned Kim Jong Un’s children until then and the North Korean regime has never even confirmed the existence of a family of the leader.
A North Korean “princess”
The North Korean leader is extremely discreet about private and family life. Only his marriage to Ri Sol Ju was confirmed by Pyongyang in 2012, three years after it took place.
Regarding his offspring, a photo of his wife in 2012 had given rise to pregnancy rumors, but this was never confirmed by the regime. However, according to South Korean intelligence, Kim Jong-Un had three children born in 2010, 2013 and 2017. Some experts say there would be two girls and one boy, reports in particular. The Guardian.
Curiously, one of the only confirmations of the existence of the leader’s children comes from a visit by American NBA star Dennis Rodman, who traveled to North Korea in 2013. He claimed to have met, during this visit, a daughter of Kim , Ju Ae.
The girl in the photos is probably this same Ju Ae, Cheong Seong-hang, a North expert at the Sejong Institute in South Korea, speculates with AFP. She is the equivalent of a North Korean “princess”, he believes.
She could be between 12 and 13 years old, advance in The Guardian, Michael Madden, an expert on North Korea at the Stimson Center in Washington.
Kim Jong-Un’s successor?
Why such a sudden appearance? According to some experts, this public outing is not insignificant and could indicate Kim Jong-Un’s future ambitions for the girl. In fact, the fact that she is publicly together with her father could indicate that she has been chosen to succeed him, according to Cheong Seong-Hang.
The current North Korean leader had been chosen by his father, Kim Jong-Il, from among his sons to succeed him because he felt he had qualities close to his own.
“Kim Jong-Un might want to do the same with this particular girl,” Cheong Seong-Hang suggests.
This appearance could also, according to Soo Kim, send “a message to the international community inviting it to accept the fourth iteration of terror and belligerence” from Pyongyang, and “prepare for it.”
A short way of saying that the North Korean regime is not stopping and is already planning its future. The world should expect to “deal with the fourth generation” of the regime, warns the expert.
Source: BFM TV
