When North Korean state media published photos of Kim Jong Un at the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile last month, it was not the fearsome Hwasong-17 “monster missile” that captured the world’s attention, but a young girl and her little red shoes.
Kim Ju Ae, the North Korean dictator’s second child, accompanied her father to the launch in mid-November. It was the first time state media had ever shown images or confirmed the identity of any of Kim’s children, prompting speculation that the nine-year-old may have been identified by Kim as his successor.
Wearing an immaculate white coat, she held her father’s hand as they inspected the ICBM and its 22-wheel transporter erector launcher, before overseeing the launch together from a site on the outskirts of Pyongyang.
A week later she appeared again, accompanying her father to thank soldiers, scientists and officials at a ceremony during which the transporter erector launcher was itself awarded the title of “DPRK Hero”.
“When you look at the way she is being treated by the generals and her father in the photos, she is being presented not just as a daughter, but as a princess,” said Go Myong-hyun, senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.
“Kim Jong Un is trying to normalise his regime’s image by adopting the trappings of European-style monarchy.”
Born in 2013, Kim Ju Ae’s name was first revealed to the world by NBA legend Dennis Rodman, a friend of the North Korean leader. Shortly after her image was released, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service confirmed that she was the daughter of Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju.
In contrast to the wives and partners of Kim’s predecessors and many communist leaders in other countries, Ri makes regular public appearances alongside her husband. The couple are thought to have a son born in 2010, and another daughter born in 2017.
Kim Ju Ae’s public debut comes at a time of acute tension on the Korean peninsula, following a record number of North Korean missile launches.
The Hwasong-17 has a range of up to 15,000km, putting the US mainland within striking distance. At last month’s ceremony, Kim boasted that his scientists and engineers had “made a wonderful leap forward in the development of the technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles”.
Rather than anointing Ju Ae as his successor, experts said it was more likely that the dictator wished to send a message both to North Koreans and to the outside world about the permanence of his nuclear programme and his regime.
“The photos of Kim and his daughter at the ICBM launch site were clearly intended to bolster his image as the father of the people and the nation,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a senior analyst at the Open Nuclear Network in Vienna.
“The main reason, however, seems to have been to highlight the necessity of nuclear weapons programmes for the security of future generations — and Ju Ae likely was meant to represent future generations.”
That message was reinforced by a front-page editorial in North Korea’s state Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which described the nuclear weapons as “monuments to be passed down to our descendants for generations to come”.
Lee added: “Kim wants to show that the country has no intention of slowing down, let alone giving up, his nuclear and missile programmes.”
The Kim regime features several high-profile women, even as ordinary North Korean women suffer systematic discrimination and abuse. They include foreign minister Choe Son Hui, Kim’s wife Ri, and his sister Kim Yo Jong, a senior regime official who recently likened the US to a “scared barking dog” for its opposition to the ballistic missile tests.
The increasing prominence of Kim Yo Jong, who this week described South Korea’s president Yoon Suk-yeol as a “political moron” who would suffer a “violent death”, has led some analysts to suggest that she could succeed her brother or rule as a regent if he died or was incapacitated before his son, a more likely successor, reached adulthood.
“In the case of illness or an emergency situation, Kim Yo Jong is likely to be a strong candidate to take over because in North Korea bloodline is more important than gender,” said Park Young-ja, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
“From the long-term perspective, however, the North is still a military and totalitarian society and the regime’s male-centred character is strong,” she added.
“So women can take part in the transitional period in a temporary process, but if the male lineage grows up in good health, it is more orthodox for a member of the male bloodline to become the leader of North Korea”.
Christopher Green, a senior consultant for the International Crisis Group, said it was “entirely possible that Kim Jong Un believes Ju Ae is the most temperamentally appropriate of his children for high political office”.
But he noted that before assuming power both Kim and his father before him had “taken on very significant portfolios in the government and had to ‘prove’ themselves, including in some way demonstrating military bona fides”.
“The race to take over North Korea still has a very long way to run.”
Additional reporting by Kang Buseong
