Kim Jong-un’s daughter begins to position herself as her father’s successor at the helm of North Korea: what is known about her and the mysteries surrounding her

Kim Jong Un Supervised military exercises and visited an agricultural complex accompanied by his daughterin an unusual public appearance by the North Korean leader with the minor who could mark his possible successor status at the helm of the regime.

Reports in English and Korean from North Korea’s official KCNA news agency on Kim and his daughter’s visit to a used agricultural compound honorific term in the pluralwhich implies that it refers to both.

“THE excellent guidestogether with Party, government and army officials, visited the farm,” reads the English version of the article, accompanied by images of the North Korean leader and his daughter, who both name and age are officially unknown.

Analysts have underlined this It is the first time that Kim’s daughter has been included in the expression “great guides”never named by Pyongyang media but identified by South Korean intelligence as Ju Ae.

“It is the first expression that elevates Kim Ju Ae to the rank” of leader, Yang Moo-jin, rector of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.

“This level of personal adoration for Kim Ju Ae strongly suggests the possibility of succeeding Kim Jong Un as North Korea’s next leader“said Cheong Seong-chang, a specialist at the Sejong Institute, noting that this expression is reserved for “senior leaders or successors” of the communist regime.

Kim Jong Un is the grandson of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung, and succeeded his father Kim Jong Il as the country’s leader when he died in 2011. In the event of succession, his daughter Ju Ae would be the fourth of the Kim dynasty to lead the country.

The current leader married his wife Ri Sol Ju in 2009, according to Seoul’s spy agency.

Ju Ae was first presented to the world by official North Korean media in 2022, when he accompanied his father to the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Since then she has been seen at many of her father’s official engagements, such as military exercises or visits to an arms factory and a poultry farm.

Before 2022, the only confirmation of its existence had come from former NBA player Dennis Rodman, who visited North Korea in 2013 and said he met Kim’s girlfriend, named Ju Ae, who was a girl.

The government of neighboring South Korea was the first source to report that Kim and his wife Ri had a son as their first child, in 2010, and that Ju Ae was born later.

But last year, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said the government was “unable to confirm with certainty” the existence of Kim Jong Un’s son.

Preparations for war

Kim attended the military drills, and the local press picked up his comments that would be North Korea’s first official response to South Korea and the United States’ annual military maneuvers.

“He stressed the need for all military personnel to be firmly armed, with a strong will against the enemy and a deep combat vision to change history if a war breaks out,” state news agency KCNA said on Saturday.

In the images shared by the aforementioned source, Kim is seen with her daughter, both dressed in leather coats: black for the father and brown for the daughter.

The minor appears supervising the maneuvers with binoculars, in another example of the prominent role the North Korean leader would like to give his daughter.

The current drills would be a response to recent annual military exercises by South Korea and the United States that ended on Thursday after eleven days and which sought to strengthen military and deterrent capabilities against the North Korean threat.