Comment SEOUL — The first public appearance of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter in state media photos of the latest ballistic missile test has North Korea watchers buzzing for a bigger meaning. Was it an indication of Kim’s succession plans, although the girl is not yet in her teens? And given the strange setting, who was the intended audience for these images? Accurately guessing communications released from North Korea, one of the most closed countries in the world, is an educated guessing game at best. His propaganda can convey multiple messages at once and can serve as a kind of Rorschach test for differing opinions. However, many experts agree that releasing the photo was a fascinating move by Kim that sheds light on how he may want to be seen as a leader and father, both domestically and internationally. “This is an extremely unusual case. You can’t see it with a lens. I think Kim looked at both the external and internal implications,” said Kwak Gil-seop, former director of the North Korean Regime Research Office at the government-linked Institute for Strategic National Security. “This was the result of very deliberate and complex planning. I think it is the best that has been done among Kim Jong Un’s staged events.” What is happening in North Korea? Since the pandemic, the window has closed. Images of Kim and his daughter, released on Saturday, showed them on the website of what Pyongyang announced as the successful launch of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile to date. The Hwasong-17 is designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads and has the capability to reach the East Coast of the United States. State media said Kim brought his “beloved” daughter, who has not been named, along with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, who has appeared in previous photos of missile tests. Observers say they believe the girl is Kim Ju Ae, whose name was first revealed in 2013 when retired NBA star Dennis Rodman described holding her as a baby during his visit to North Korea that year. South Korean intelligence officials say Kim has two other children. The eldest boy born around 2010. Even less is known about the other child, born around 2017. Tae Yong-ho, a South Korean lawmaker who was North Korea’s top diplomat before defecting, said he believed Kim wanted to emphasize his family roots and use them to underline the foundations of North Korea’s nuclear development – a message that the weapons program, the crux of the regime’s survival strategy, is here to stay. “Pointing to his daughter next to the ICBM, [Kim] it announces to the world and its people that the DPRK will never give up its nuclear program and it will continue throughout its lineage,” Tae said, using the official acronym for North Korea. “And this message also suggests that the world cannot achieve the denuclearization of the DPRK through influencing” China. A North Korean statement hinted at the meaning behind the photos a day after they were released. In a story published in Rodong Sinmun, a state media outlet, an unnamed North Korean woman described how she watched the event on television with her children. She is reported to have praised her success, saying that thanks to the country’s weapons, her children would “never know war and live under the blue sky”. North Korea is turning up the heat again. Here’s why. Regardless of the motive, his daughter’s appearance broke the rules. Kim is the third generation of his family to lead North Korea, and the children of Kim leaders have historically not made such appearances until after they were designated as successor, noted Rachel Minyoung Lee, an expert on North Korean media propaganda. This is not the first time Kim has strayed from the conventions set by his father and grandfather. For example, he was more outspoken about his country’s food crisis and other problems than his predecessors. And unlike his father, who did not reveal his wife and only appeared in public with his sister later in life, Ri appeared in state media six months after Kim came to power and his sister, top assistant, regularly appears in public. “The unprecedented move of revealing the current leader’s child to the public should be understood in the broader context of North Korea’s evolving propaganda strategy under Kim Jong Un,” Lee said. “North Korea in the past decade has made efforts to make propaganda more persuasive and manageable, and that has sometimes included increased transparency,” highlighting a more human side of Kim. He escaped from North Korea and then risked everything to come back for his mom “Ju Ae was probably meant to represent future generations, and there is no stronger expression of your determination than your child,” Lee said. There could be other motives, according to Kwak, the North Korea regime expert. By shifting the discussion to his role as family leader, he could be trying to remind political elites and the domestic public of his ‘Baekdu’ bloodline as a descendant of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung. “Beyond military issues and diplomatic complications [of an ICBM test], drew the world’s attention to himself as a father. He has glossed over the issues of provocations and nuclear weapons development while promoting his image,” Kwak said. The photos have raised questions about possible designs to name a successor to Kim, although he is only 38. Experts say any assumptions would be premature based on his daughter’s one-time appearance. The previous two successive campaigns took years to unfold through private meetings with political leaders. North Korea says it has tested nuclear-capable missiles aimed at the South However, this could be the beginning of a long process of creating Ju Ae’s public persona and training her to become an established member of the North Korean elite, or even an influential official in the regime, said Michael Madden, the who runs the website. North Korean Leadership Observatory. Kim has built heavily on the work of his predecessors in developing the country’s nuclear weapons program, Madden said. Bringing his daughter to the Hwasong-17 launch could be a way to strengthen the family heritage as well as the association with it. “That’s a way of saying, ‘I’m going to take out the eldest daughter and guess who’s going to run North Korea?’ We’re going to continue the reign of the Kim family here, so don’t make any plans,” Madden said. Potential political challengers should pay attention, he added. “Putting her out like that, even if she doesn’t become supreme leader, is a way of saying, ‘This is going to continue and don’t even try to think about power challenges.’ “
