Public spotlight: Jong-un (centre), his wife Ri Sol-ju and their daughter Ju-ae visiting the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to mark the new year in Pyongyang. — KCNA via KNS/AFP
The North Korean leader’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, has made her first public visit to a mausoleum housing her grandfather and great-grandfather, state media images showed, further solidifying her place as likely next in line to run the nuclear-armed dictatorship.
The Kim family has ruled North Korea with an iron grip for decades and a cult of personality surrounding their so-called “Paektu bloodline” dominates daily life in the isolated country.
Current leader Kim Jong-un is the third in line to rule in the world’s only communist monarchy, following his father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il-sung.
The two men – dubbed “eternal leaders” in state propaganda – are housed in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a vast mausoleum in downtown Pyongyang.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported yesterday that Jong-un had visited the palace, accompanied by top officials.
Images released by the agency showed daughter Ju-ae alongside him.
South Korea’s spy agency said last year she was now understood to be the next in line to rule North Korea after she accompanied her father on a high-profile visit to Beijing. And Cheong Seong-chang at Seoul’s Sejong Institute said he expected her to soon be “formally confirmed as the next successor both domestically and internationally”.
Cheong, author of a book on the Kim leadership, said her placement in the centre of the front row during her visit to the palace – a place typically reserved for her father – was especially notable.
It could be “interpreted as reporting to the ‘eternal leaders’ Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il that she is being presented as his successor”, he said.
Ju-ae was publicly introduced to the world in 2022 when she accompanied her father to an intercontinental ballistic missile launch.
North Korean state media have since referred to her as “the beloved child” and a “great person of guidance” – “hyangdo” in Korean – a term typically reserved for top leaders and their successors.
Before 2022, the only confirmation of her existence had come from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who made a visit to the North in 2013.
Analysts have suggested that she could be elected First Secretary of the Central Committee, the second most powerful position in the North Korean ruling party, at a landmark congress due to be held in the coming weeks.
On Thursday, footage showed Ju-ae accompanying her parents at New Year celebrations in Pyongyang. — AFP
