North Korean leader Kim Jong-un brought his daughter to inspect the missile. AFP photo
The little girl is training to be her successor, showing the military potential of the DPRK to her, to understand its strategy towards the US, Japan and South Korea, and learning how to manage it. management of the country’s nuclear potential, the director of the Center for Korean Studies at Sejong University Jung Seong-jang explained in a commentary for Sputnik.
On February 14, North Korea unveiled a new design of postage stamps featuring images of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his daughter Kim Ju-ae, as they attended the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. (ICBM) Hwaseong-17 last November.
As the professor notes, what matters is not that Kim Jong-un’s daughter Kim Joo-ae is still very young, but “where and how she appeared in public”. According to Jung Seong-jang, the explanation that Kim Ju-ae appeared in the media as a “symbol of future generations” is not enough to explain the number of published photos and the number of appearances of girls, especially the inspection of the stockpile of KN-23 missiles that can carry tactical nuclear weapons, and Hwaseong-12 medium-range ballistic missiles on January 1.
According to experts, there are three reasons why Kim Jong-un took the girl to observe the testing of many types of weapons.
“First, this can be interpreted as an indirect reminder to the North Korean people that Kim Jong-un’s ‘baby’, Kim Ju-ae, will be his successor in the future.
Second, Kim Ju-ae accompanied Kim Jong-un to an ICBM test launch site and then a missile depot capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The photos released since then, show that North Korea will “never” give up its nuclear weapons and missile and nuclear development will continue in the later period,” the expert explained. .
Kim Jong-un’s daughter Kim Ju-ae made an appearance that caused a stir in the world.
Lessons for future successors
The third reason Jung Seong-jang believes that although Kim Jong-un’s daughter is currently in the “training for future successor” stage due to her young age, if she inherits power, she will also gain control of nuclear weapons. So, Kim Jong-un began to gradually share information with her about the country’s nuclear arsenal so that later the girl could “confidently control and command the most important strategic assets” of the country. North Korea.
“It is no coincidence that Kim Ju-ae first accompanied Kim Jong-un to the test launch site of the Hwaseong-17 ICBM capable of striking the US mainland, and then to the Hwaseong-12 medium-range missile depot. The missile can reach Guam and Japan, and the KN-23 missile can hit the entire Korean territory. and Korea”, – the professor concluded.
When was the first time Kim Jong-un showed off his daughter?
Kim Jong-un showed his daughter for the first time when he accompanied him to watch the launch of ICBM Hwaseong-17 on November 18. After that, Kim Jong-un and his beloved daughter took pictures with the staff who contributed to the successful test launch of the ICBM. This is the first time the official North Korean media has revealed the appearance of Mr. Kim’s daughter.
Information about the number of Kim Jong-un’s children, their gender or age, is carefully hidden. Ri Sol-ju, wife of Kim Jong-un, to whom he has been married since 2009, had children in 2010, 2013 and 2017, according to intelligence and various media reports. According to US basketball star Dennis Rodman, who visited North Korea in 2013, the baby born that year was a girl named Kim Ju-ae. Kim’s oldest child is probably a boy. There is an opinion that the girl in the photos posted by CACC can only be Kim Ju-ae born in 2013.
Since then, the girl has appeared in the official media of the DPRK 4 times. The last time Kim Jong-un’s daughter, along with her father and mother, watched a military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean army on February 8. Neither the age nor the name of the daughter have been made public.