The world should brace itself for the fourth generation of North Korea as President Kim Jong Un showcased his daughter for the first time to public coinciding with the launch of a giant Intercontinental Ballistic Missile capable of hitting the United States in less than 10 Minutes.
Pictures showed a beaming Kim holding hands with an adoring girl in a white puffer jacket and red shoes, walking in front of a giant black-and-white missile and appearing to celebrate a successful test.
Previously there has not been any confirmation that President Kim was raising a family.
According to Seoul’s spy agency, Kim married his wife Ri Sol Ju, in 2009, and she gave birth to their first child the following year, with their second and third born in 2013 and 2017.
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman visited North Korea in 2013 and claimed he’d met President Kim’s baby daughter of Kim’s called Ju Ae.
The daughter revealed in the photographs is presumed to be Ju Ae.
Japan said Friday’s ICBM launch likely had the range to hit the US mainland.
To introduce Kim’s daughter to the world at this juncture could be a message to the world that the North Korean regime is not going away, analyst Soo Kim said.
“In a way, it’s a symbolic picture of Kim passing the sceptre of rule to the next generation,” she said, which sends “a message to the international community to accept and brace for North Korea.
She said that the photos also suggest “a degree of closeness and comfort between Kim and his daughter”, which could indicate that she is being groomed for future leadership.
“The third time is not the charm when it comes to dealing with the Kim family,” she said, adding that the world needs to “think about dealing with the fourth generation” of the regime.
North Korean studies scholar Ahn Chan-il observed, “It is also a gesture of stabilising the regime by declaring to the outside world that it is now heading for its fourth-generation succession and that it is well-prepared for it.”
Including his wife in the public appearance and “especially his daughter ‘soften’ the image, at least [maybe] for domestic audience,” North Korea expert John Delury wrote on Twitter.
