A cold new dawn: Pyongyang fast-tracks Kim Jong Un's teenage daughter to command the world's most isolated army
North Korea's KCNA revealed striking images of Kim Ju Ae firing a sniper rifle. As Kim Yo Jong takes a new party role, experts say the 'Paektu bloodline' succession is now official.
by Zee Media Bureau · Zee NewsNorth Korea has published images of a teenage daughter of leader Kim Jong Un holding a high-powered sniper rifle, the clearest sign yet that he is preparing her to take his place as the autocratic ruler of the nuclear-armed peninsula.
A kick on the trigger: The new KCNA images
On Saturday, state media outlet Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of the teenage Kim Ju Ae at an outdoor shooting range. Wearing a black leather jacket – a piece of vestments that has become almost a visual shorthand for power in the Kim rank, with the leader himself and his son both wearing black jackets – the girl peers through a telescopic scope, with smoke coming out of the barrel and her finger on the trigger.
In the images, Ju Ae appeared on the parade ground on Saturday, where she held a central position alongside her father, at a massive military parade to celebrate the end of an important Workers' Party congress earlier this week.
'Absolute trust': Kim dons 2018 military parade
Kim Jong Un was on display at the parade, presenting new domestically-made sniper rifles to senior party and military commanders as a sign of "absolute trust," the KCNA report said.
Kim himself allegedly tested the guns and took group photographs with his generals, but the purposeful addition of Ju Ae to the firing exercise was a notable change in her public image from "beloved child" to a military asset.
The road to succession
South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) briefed lawmakers last week that Pyongyang seems to have officially fast-tracked the succession of Ju Ae to the "Paektu bloodline."
"With the emphasis on Ju Ae's ability to hold and fire a gun, these photographs indicate that she is indeed being trained as a successor," Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told a news agency. He added that military skill is a compulsory qualification for anyone leading the garrison state.
Kim Yo Jong's new power play
Simultaneously, KCNA announced that the leader's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, has been appointed as director of the party’s General Affairs Department. Analysts said this role is similar to a party secretary-general and will put her in charge of the Workers' Party's internal administrative machinery.
The Ju Ae military rookie joint with the Yo Jong administrative promotion is a sign of the family's tightening grip on power as the regime navigates its most crucial leadership transition in more than ten years.