The North Korean dictator is using the test of a Hwasong-17 that could reach the United States to show his possible heir, who is 12 or 13 years old
With viscous photos in glossy magazines, the official introductions of the royal heirs often take place in luxurious palaces with the parents decked out in their finest clothes. But in North Korea, which has become the only communist dynasty and is already in its third generation, there is no gossip and life is focused on one aspect: the military. With that tradition as its flag, it’s not surprising that its young dictator, Kim Jong-un, presented his daughter to society at the launch of his latest intercontinental missile, a Hwasong-17 that flew nearly a thousand miles in 69 minutes on Friday. . When the projectile reached a maximum altitude of 6,040 kilometers above Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and falling into the international waters of the Sea of Japan, called the East in Korea, analysts think it could travel up to 15,000 kilometers and theoretically could hit American soil with the three to five heads it could carry.
To celebrate such an important “achievement”, Kim Jong-un took his daughter to the rocket launch. As the state news agency KCNA revealed on Saturday, the dictator witnessed this ballistics test “along with his beloved wife and daughter,” marking his heiress’ first public appearance. In the photos circulated by the KCNA, the girl, who is believed to be 12 or 13 years old, is seen holding her father’s hand as he inspects the giant rocket, carried by an eleven-wheeled mobile shuttle. Wearing a white coat, black pants and red shoes, he also accompanies him on the platform from which Kim Jong-un watched the test with his wife and other generals. With a chubby face, he looks more like his father than his mother, who appears in the photos in a military green jacket that rounds off his figure and makes him lose the charm of years ago.
Since former NBA star Dennis Rodman, a friend of the dictator, revealed it in 2013, it was already known that Kim and his wife, Ri sol-ju, had a daughter named Ju-ae or Chu-ae. In addition, they are believed to have another girl and boy, born in 2013 and 2017. But this first public appearance, and in an act as important to the regime as a ballistics test, points to her confirmation as heiress, as North Korean propaganda is extremely jealous of the relatives of its leaders and only shows images of them if there is a political intention behind it.
As this correspondent was able to confirm during his first trip to North Korea in 2006, the populace did not even know that the then dictator, the “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il, had children. They found out on September 28, 2010, when the youngest of the three boys, Kim Jong-un, was named general at a Workers’ Party Congress and led a military parade a few days later with his father, who had already been ill by then and started to prepare his succession. Similarly, it was not known who Kim Jong-un’s wife was until the summer of 2012, eight months after taking over from his father, who died in December 2011, and after official mourning had ended.
With such hermetic and belated precedents, many pundits are now wondering why the dictator just introduced his daughter publicly. Though she is just a girl and he is still quite young as he would be around 38 years old, there are suspicions about his poor health due to his excess weight and his alleged penchant for alcohol and tobacco. “It signals his confidence in Mount Paektu’s lineage and the success of his missile, and emphasizes the importance of national security,” Yang Moo-jin, the president of the University of North Korean Studies, told South Korea. news agency Yonhap. referring to the sacred mountain of this line, deified by propaganda.
Apart from speculation about his health, the dictator shows the world the new generation of the Kim dynasty, the basis of this communist regime that remains closed to the outside world and spends millions on weapons while the people barely survive. Or it’s also possible that Kim Jong-un, like any father, prides himself on teaching his daughter what he’s good at: firing missiles with which to terrorize the planet.
Source: La Verdad
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