Kim Jong-un has asked (and his every wish is, of course, an order) that North Korea's defense industry speed up production of missile launchers “in preparation for an armed clash” with South Korea and the United States. The marshal opened 2024 with a visit to a factory that makes vehicles for transporting and launching ballistic missiles. North Korea already holds the record for the largest Tel (Transporter Erector Launcher), an eleven-axle truck equipped with a launch pad on which the Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles are mounted. These monstrous vehicles serve to provide mobility to ordnance, making it difficult to locate them before they are fired. However, Western analysts still doubt that the weight of the entire weapon system can really enable rapid movement on the road or off-road.
There is no doubt on the part of South Korean intelligence that Kim chose his daughter Ju Ae as heiress. The girl, who should be 11 or 12 years old, has been a constant presence alongside her father at demonstrations prepared by the propaganda (led by her aunt Kim Yo-jong) since last year.
Photos from Kim's “galvanizing” inspection of the rocket launcher factory put the spotlight back on the teenager, wearing a sleek black leather jacket with a fur collar and appearing mesmerized by the weapons' power. In one picture, she can be seen looking up to admire the size of the rocket pods.
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His first appearance took place in November 2022 at the launch site of an intercontinental ballistic missile. From February 2023, releases have intensified. Initially, the Pyongyang press referred to the little girl as a “beloved child” and a “noble maiden.” Later he began to systematically call her “distinguished daughter.” It seems like a promotion to an official role, as Kim Jong-un is often referred to as the “Respected Marshal”.
Furthermore, the North's propaganda never mentioned the name of Kim's daughter. It was Western analysts who identified her as Ju Ae. Now Cho Tae-yong, Seoul's new spy director, is convinced that this daughter (Kim has two other children) is first in line to the throne. “Analyzing the level of respect the regime gives her, Kim Ju Ae appears to be the most likely candidate to lead North Korea at this time,” Director Cho said in a report to parliament in Seoul. Of course, it is still very early to say whether little girl Kim Ju Ae will one day be the fourth Kim to lead the “Hermit Kingdom.”
North Korea remains a fundamentally chauvinistic regime and Kim has a son who may be older than his sister, who came to the fore. But the fact is that for some reason the dictator father did not consider it necessary to give birth to the male child. “By letting his daughter accompany her on important public occasions, the marshal teaches her command and prepares a network of consensus for her at an early age,” says Cheong Seong-Chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute in Seoul. Kim Jong-un turns 40 next Monday, January 8th.