Designs released by North Korea’s state-owned Korea Stamp Corporation earlier this week also show Kim Ju Ae on five of eight new stamps to be distributed starting Friday to celebrate the November flight test of the intercontinental ballistic missile. Hwasong-17, an event she attended The stamps carried previously publicized images showing the girl holding her father’s hand as they walked near the missile and posed for photos with her father in front of a wall of applauding soldiers days after the missile was launched. Hwasong-17.
After her first public appearance, lawmakers were told by the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s top spy agency, that she was Kim’s second daughter, according to some of the lawmakers who attended a door-to-door briefing. closed. The spy service later said it believed that by taking his daughter to public events, Kim Jong Un intended to show the public his determination to hand power over to one of his sons in the future, though it assessed that the younger Kim’s appearances were not they necessarily meant she would succeed her father.
Ju Ae’s name matched what retired NBA star Dennis Rodman named Kim’s daughter, whom he said he saw and held during his trip to Pyongyang in 2013. Rodman told Britain’s Guardian newspaper that Kim Jong Un was a “good father” to his daughter and that “Marshal Kim and I spent a relaxing time by the sea with his family.”
Since its founding in 1948, North Korea has successively been ruled by male members of the Kim family. Outside studies show that only a fraction of North Korea’s top officials are women, including Kim Jong Un’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong and Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui. Before Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011, his father Kim Jong Il ruled for 17 years, and before him, his father and founder of the state, Kim Il Sung, ruled for 46 years. .
“It is too early to assume that (Kim Ju Ae) will be his heir because the son has always succeeded to the North Korean throne,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. “Therefore, we do not yet know if Kim Jong Un is willing to break tradition regarding the gender of his successor or if he will play a key role in supporting whomever Kim appoints.”
