Kim Jong Un, his family dynasty, and the military: Implications for the domestic and foreign policy of a powerful country
Kim and his wife attended a banquet at a military barracks on Tuesday night together with a girl believed to be his second child, Ju Ae.
The Western observers believe that Kim Jong Un has at least three children, but they can’t say for sure that Ju Ae is his middle child.
North Korean state media published a story later that month with pictures of Kim and his daughter, describing her as his “most beloved” child, Cheong said.
Photographs published by the Rodong Sinmun newspaper show the girl walking next to Kim and her mother as they arrived for a banquet while military officers cheered.
In a country where the Kim family and the military are all powerful, the presence of the girl at such an important event sends clear signals, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“By ostentatiously including his wife and daughter, Kim wants observers at home and abroad to see his family dynasty and the North Korean military as irrevocably linked,” he said.
There is no longer doubt that Kim Ju Ae is going to become the new leader of North Korea, and it is important to pay attention to how this will affect the domestic and foreign policy of the country.
He said that the girl before Kim’s wife is mentioned in stories in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which uses “beloved” and “respected” for her.
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He died in 1994 and his son took over. The death of his father Kim did not deter Kim from becoming the new leader.
While the Kim regime has held previous such banquets for the military, pictures from Tuesday’s event depicted a more splashy setting than has been seen before.
KCNA reported that Kim Jong Un had made a speech at the banquet in which the North Korean leader praised and encouraged the military without making remarks about the United States or South Korea.
During an event expected to start late Wednesday night, analysts are expecting to see examples of the missiles that Pyongyang has been testing in recent years.
On Wednesday night, at least eleven Hwasong-17 intercontinental missiles were shown off by the North Korean military in a show of strength in response to Kim’s call for an increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal.
Dennis Rodman said that he held Kim’s baby, Ju Ae, when he visited North Korea in 2013 and also talked with Kim’s wife.
He thinks that the girl is going to succeed her father and that she has appeared in a couple of state-run media shows.
The retired South Korean general said that her appearances may be to distract the world from the audience fatigue set in after a year of record missile testing by North Korea.
“I think the North Koreans have either stumbled upon or have figured out that this is one way of getting international attention. And so with all the interest that is accumulating, they’re enjoying themselves,” he said.
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“Throughout their seven-decade history, their successors have always been a mystery to us. Why would they change the mode of operation now? She is not the successor, even if I bet $5.
There are still arguments over Ju Ae, but there is no doubt that her father wants his family to remain in power.
Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on social media that if each of those missiles were equipped with multiple nuclear warheads, they could represent enough volume to overwhelm US ballistic missile defenses.
Solid-fueled missiles on mobile launchers would give the Kim regime “the ability to attack an opponent with very, very little prior warning,” Chun said. It is a really frightening scenario.