North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un is aggressively signaling his daughter’s role as his likely successor, despite the unprecedented nature of a female in command of the hermit state.
Kim Ju Ae — the daughter of the supreme leader — stood beside her parents during a New Year’s ceremony at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, where her great-grandfather Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung are entombed.
“All the visitors made a firm pledge to fulfill their responsibility and duty in the vanguard of accomplishing the sacred cause for the eternal prosperity and development of the great DPRK and the promotion of the people’s wellbeing, true to the ideas and leadership of Kim Jong Un with single-minded loyalty,” state-controlled North Korean outlets reported.
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It was Kim Ju Ae’s first appearance at the Palace of the Sun, a mausoleum of quasi-religious significance to the Kim regime that symbolizes the Kim family’s inherent right to lead the nation.
The family, sometimes venerated as the Mount Paektu Bloodline, have ruled autocratically since Kim Il Sung established the nation in 1948.
North Korea Leadership Watch, an affiliate of the Henry L. Stimson Center’s 38 North project, drew particular attention to the teenager’s position in the center of official photos.
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“This is an extraordinary state media photo positioning in that [Kim Jong Un] is not in the center,” the observers wrote. “Also notable is that KJU’s necktie is the same color as Kim Ju Ae’s suit and Kim Yo Jong’s ensemble at a banquet held the night before.”
She was also spotted alongside her father at various New Years celebrations in Pyongyang, hugging children in the crowd and watching the fireworks from an exclusive area.
Kim Ju Ae’s age is unknown, but she is believed to be approximately 13 years old. She is the only child of Kim Jong Un to have appeared in public, but is believed to have at least two siblings — including a brother.
Kim Ju Ae’s increasingly prominent role has led to years of speculation that Kim Jong Un has selected her to succeed him as supreme leader — a massive break from the patriarchal history of the dynasty.
Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, blazed the trail for female leadership in the country with her pugnacious attitude at the highest levels of North Korean diplomacy. She is believed to be the functional second-in-command under her brother.
President Donald Trump is among the few Western leaders who have been spared from the Kim family’s most aggressive rebukes.
“Personally, I still have fond memories of U.S. President [Donald] Trump,” Kim Jong Un told North Korean lawmakers in September.
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Kim explained that he is open to dialogue about establishing a “peaceful coexistence” as long as the United States “abandons its delusional obsession with denuclearization.”
Trump has responded in kind, affirming that he is “100%” open to dialoging with the supreme leader and “got along very well with him.”