SEOUL: The North Korean leader\u2019s daughter Kim Ju Ae has made her first public visit to a mausoleum housing her grandfather and great-grandfather, state media images showed Friday, further solidifying her place as likely next in line to run the nuclear-armed dictatorship.<\/p>\n
The Kim family has ruled North Korea with an iron grip for decades, and a cult of personality surrounding their so-called \u201cPaektu bloodline\u201d dominates daily life in the isolated country.<\/p>\n
Current leader Kim Jong Un is the third in line to rule in the world\u2019s only communist monarchy, following his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung.<\/p>\n
The two men \u2014 dubbed \u201ceternal leaders\u201d in state propaganda \u2014 are housed in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a vast mausoleum in downtown Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim Jong Un had visited the palace, accompanied by top officials. Images released by the agency showed daughter Ju Ae alongside him.<\/p>\n
South Korea\u2019s spy agency said last year she was now understood to be the next in line to rule North Korea after she accompanied her father on a high-profile visit to Beijing.<\/p>\n
– \u2018Presented as Kim\u2019s successor\u2019 –<\/p>\n
And Cheong Seong-chang at Seoul\u2019s Sejong Institute said he expected her to soon be \u201cformally confirmed as the next successor both domestically and internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheong, author of a book on the Kim leadership, said her placement in the center of the front row during her visit to the place \u2014 a place typically reserved for her father \u2014 was especially notable.<\/p>\n
It could be \u201cinterpreted as reporting to the \u2018eternal leaders\u2019 Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il that she is being presented as his successor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ju Ae was publicly introduced to the world in 2022 when she accompanied her father to an intercontinental ballistic missile launch.<\/p>\n
North Korean state media have since referred to her as \u201cthe beloved child,\u201d and a \u201cgreat person of guidance\u201d \u2014 \u201chyangdo\u201d in Korean \u2014 a term typically reserved for top leaders and their successors.<\/p>\n
Before 2022, the only confirmation of her existence had come from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who made a visit to the North in 2013.<\/p>\n
Analysts have suggested that she could be elected First Secretary of the Central Committee, the second most powerful position in the North Korean ruling party, at a landmark congress due to be held in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, footage showed Ju Ae accompanying her parents at New Year celebrations in Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
While first lady Ri Sol Ju kept a low profile, state TV showed Ju Ae placing one hand on the North Korean leader\u2019s face and kissing him on the cheek \u2014 a rare public display of affection which drew headlines in South Korea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL: The North Korean leader\u2019s daughter Kim Ju Ae has made her first public visit to a mausoleum housing her grandfather and great-grandfather, state media images showed Friday, further solidifying her place as likely next in line to run the nuclear-armed dictatorship. The Kim family has ruled North Korea with an iron grip for decades, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91760,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91744\/revisions\/91760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}