North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches a soccer match with his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, in Pyongyang, North Korea, on February 17, 2023.
KCNA via REUTERS
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s daughter is making increasingly frequent public appearances.
Last week she attended a soccer match with her father.
Some analysts believe she’s being primed as her father’s successor.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un attended a soccer match with his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, amid speculation that he is positioning her as his successor.
North Korean state media said that Kim Jong Un had attended the match in Pyongyang Friday to mark the North Korean Day of the Shining Star holiday, which commemorates his father, Kim Jing Il’s, birth.
In pictures of the event, Kim Ju Ae, who is believed to be about 10, sits beside her father. They are flanked by top government and military officials as they smile and applaud the game.
It is the second time in recent weeks that Kim Ju Ae has appeared at her father’s side at a public event, and her 7th public appearance in total.
Earlier in February, she attended a state banquet with her father and mother in Pyongyang to mark the 75th anniversary of the country’s army, and the following day attended a parade to showcase North Korea’s inter-continental ballistic missiles.
The frequency of her public appearances and her prominent place in propaganda photographs of the events has led some analysts to speculate that Kim Jong Un is preparing her to be his successor.
“Given these developments, there is no longer a question about whether Kim Ju Ae has been chosen as Kim Jong Un’s successor,” Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea leadership expert at the Sejong Institute, Seoul, recently told The Washington Post.
Other analysts say that he may be using his daughter to signal how closely his family’s future is bound up with the military and North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reacts as he watches sport games in Pyongyang, North Korea on February 17, 2023. His sister, Kim Yo Jong, appears at the far left in the back row.
KCNA via Reuters
Also pictured at last week’s soccer match was Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who is also rumored to be a potential successor to the dictator.
North Korea has released little information about Kim Jong’s family. He believed to have three children, including an elder son with his wife, Ri Sol Ju.