Kim first showed one of his daughters, who could be his heir to power: it was during the launch of a new rocket

the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of a new ICBM (ICBM) in his first appearance with one of his daughters, who could be his heir to power.

Kim said he would respond to US nuclear threats with its own nuclear weapons by overseeing the launch of the missile, a weapon experts have dubbed the “monstrous missile,” the state agency said. KCN extension.

The the launch of the new missile was a successaccording to KCNA, which highlighted how “the test clearly demonstrated the reliability of the new strategic weapons system”.

Kim posed for photos with his wife and baby, marking the first reference in state media to one of their three children.

The North Korean leader appears in the images next to a little girl in a white coat and red shoes walking in front of the missile. However, state media did not report the girl’s name.

What is most significant about the ICBM launch is “the permanence of the Kim regime’s weapons program, because it is integral to the survival and continuity” of his family’s reign, said former CIA analyst Soo Kim, who he now works for the Rand Corporation study center.

Regarding the coverage of the state press, the expert stressed: “We have seen with our own eyes the fourth generation of the Kim family.”

The North Korean leader – who is the grandson of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung and the third generation in power – married his wife Ri Sol Ju in 2009, according to Korea’s intelligence agency.

The following year, she had her firstborn, and her next children were born in 2013 and 2017, according to the agency.

The only previous confirmation of Kim’s children came from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who visited North Korea in 2013 and said he met Kim’s young daughter named Ju Ae.

The girl in the photos is believed to be Ju Ae, who is likely Kim’s second daughter, Cheong Seong-chang of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute in South Korea told AFP.

North Korea has carried out a record number of nuclear tests in recent weeks in response to US maneuvers in the region. It is feared that these tests are the prelude to a new nuclear test.

State-run KCNA news agency reported that Kim criticized the “hysterical aggression that constitutes war games” and said that if the United States continues to make threats, North Korea “will resolutely react to nuclear weapons with weapons nuclear and in full comparison with an all-out comparison”.

The European Union has condemned North Korea’s “dangerous” missile test and said Pyongyang’s weapons program threatens the world.

According to the state press, the missile reached a maximum height of 6,040.9 km and traveled a distance of 999.2 km, parameters which coincide with the estimates of the South Korean and Japanese military authorities.

North Korea said on March 24 that it had fired a Hwasong-17 missile, its most powerful to date, but South Korea later questioned the test. Meanwhile, analysts have noted that the launch appears to have been successful this time around.

“This launch is important because it is believed to be the first successful flight of a Hawsong-17 ICBM,” said Joseph Dempsey, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

The missile was fired, not sideways, to prevent it from flying over Japan.

But the “monster missile” has drawbacks. “Its size makes it less practical because the trucking system and manufacturing strain more on the country’s limited resources,” Dempsey said.

After Kim Jong Un declared his country’s nuclear program “irreversible” in September, the United States stepped up military cooperation with Japan and South Korea and sought to strengthen defenses in the region.

The United States deployed its B-1B bomber to the Korean peninsula on Saturday for a joint air exercise with South Korea.

The United Nations Security Council announced on Saturday that it would discuss the North Korea issue at a meeting on Monday.

With information from AFP