Kim Jong-un appeared with his young daughter again yesterday as he claimed North Korea was creating the world’s most powerful nuclear weapons arsenal at a ceremony celebrating the successful test of its latest missile.
It is the second public appearance of Kim’s daughter — believed to be called Ju-ae and aged about ten.
At the ceremony, Kim promoted more than 100 officials and scientists who had worked on the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which is believed to be capable of striking mainland America. Kim called it “the world’s strongest strategic weapon” and said his nation’s scientists had achieved a “wonderful leap forward in the development of the technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles,” according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
The Rodong Sinmun state newspaper carried more than a dozen photographs of Kim’s daughter, who resembles her mother, Ri Sol-ju.
Official media in North Korea had never acknowledged the existence of Kim’s children prior to the appearance of Ju-ae on November 18. She is believed to be the middle child of Kim’s three offspring.
Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told AP: “This is certainly striking. The photograph of Kim Ju-ae standing alongside her father while being celebrated by technicians and scientists involved in the latest ICBM launch would support the idea that this is the start of her being positioned as a potential successor.”
