Kim Jong Un’s Daughter Noticed At Navy Parade. What We Know About Her

For years, North Korean state media by no means talked about Kim’s youngsters.

South Korea:

It wasn’t the nuclear missiles, ranks of goose-stepping troopers or medal-bedecked generals that captivated most consideration at North Korea’s current navy parade: it was a 10-year-old woman.

Alongside the nation’s chief Kim Jong Un, the woman — doubtless Kim’s second baby Ju Ae — inspected a guard of honour in the latest of a slew of high-profile appearances which have sparked fervent hypothesis she has been anointed his inheritor.

AFP takes a have a look at what we all know:

Who’s she?

For years, North Korean state media by no means talked about Kim’s youngsters, though Seoul’s spy company has mentioned he has three along with his spouse. They’re believed to be aged round 13, 10 and 6.

The one earlier affirmation of their existence had come from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who claimed he met a child daughter of Kim’s known as Ju Ae throughout a 2013 go to to North Korea.

However three months in the past, on the launch of his strongest intercontinental ballistic missile, Kim turned up along with his “beloved” daughter in tow.

Though North Korea has by no means formally recognized her by identify, Seoul’s spy company and analysts consider the woman is Ju Ae, Kim’s second baby.

Is she Kim’s inheritor?

It actually seems to be that approach, specialists say.

State media has known as her Kim’s “beloved” and “revered” daughter, and he or she has been proven strolling hand-in-hand together with her father — as her mom trailed behind them.

This means North Korea has began constructing a “character cult” round Ju Ae, mentioned Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.

It “indicators that she has been designated because the de facto successor despite the fact that she does not maintain the official ‘successor’ standing but”, he mentioned.

In state media pictures, Ju Ae has been positioned within the center, subsequent to her father and surrounded by the nation’s high brass.

“It means that Kim Ju Ae will change into the supreme commander of the navy sooner or later,” Cheong added.

Will North Korea Settle for A Lady Chief?

Relating to girls assuming political management roles, North Korea’s glass ceiling has been bulletproof, says Bronwen Dalton, head of the division of administration on the College of Know-how Sydney’s enterprise faculty.

However change is afoot, she mentioned, and North Korea’s management is making an attempt to “preserve its legitimacy by creating a brand new model of womanhood” that displays social adjustments within the nation over current many years.

Youthful generations have “grown up shopping for and promoting in markets, utilizing cell phones and accessing overseas media content material”, which has compelled North Korea to recalibrate its model of a really perfect lady.

North Korea’s present management, though predominantly male, does have some high-profile girls, together with overseas minister Choe Son-hui and Kim’s youthful sister Kim Yo Jong as a regime spokeswoman.

Kim Jong Un is “presiding over a propaganda equipment forging a brand new narrative on the place of ladies”, Dalton informed AFP.

However crucially, an important position of all North Korean girls stays “devotion to their ‘father’ Kim Jong Un”, which Ju Ae embodies completely, she added.

So she’ll positively be in cost at some point?

Not essentially, specialists say.

“Maybe greater than another nation, counting on household ties and being within the proximity of energy is precarious,” Dalton mentioned, pointing to a “revolving door” of relations who’ve been exiled from North Korea or killed.

“Girls are usually not immune,” she added.

A feminine chief stays “unattainable” in North Korea for now, An Chan-il, a defector turned researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Research, informed AFP.

“Nobody would welcome the concept if Kim Jong Un disappeared immediately and Ju Ae needed to succeed him,” he mentioned.

However her gradual introduction to the general public over the following decade or two, coupled with “ideological training”, ought to assist, he mentioned.

“The North Koreans seldom query who turns into the ruler.”

What about Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal?

Whereas North Korea shouldn’t be a monarchy, Kim Jong Un is the third era of his household to rule the nation, after his father and grandfather, founding chief Kim Il Sung.

For the Kims, one of the vital parts of regime preservation has been their nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

“Celebrations of North Korea’s nuclear-capable missile build-up might seem to be unusual events to undertaking a child-friendly picture,” however they’re efficient home propaganda, Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha College in Seoul, informed AFP.

“Kim is portraying Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal as a multigenerational asset to nationwide safety whereas proclaiming the navy’s full loyalty to his political dynasty.”

(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)