Kim Jong-un spends quality time with daughter, 10, at another missile test
It was quite an intense Bring Your Child to Work Day.
Kim Jong-un has capped off a week of angry rhetoric and regular missile tests with a bit of father-daughter time.
The North Korea dictator’s child Kim Ju-ae, who is believed to be around ten years old, joined him yesterday to watch a military exercise involving a mock nuclear warhead.
State media Rodong Sinmun said today that the missile launch was planned to ‘substantially bolster the country’s war deterrence and nuclear counterattack capability’.
Pictures showing the high-stakes Bring Your Child to Work Day were released soon afterwards, including one of the pair strolling through a misty forest surrounded by military figures.
Ju-ae has become a regular fixture by her dad’s side in the past few months, after making a sudden entry into public life in November.
The frequency of her appearances has led to some speculation the dictator is setting the youngster up to be his successor.
She was pictured earlier this month sitting next to her dad to watch the army simulating an attack on an unspecified South Korean airfield, as they both wore matching black overcoats.
Ju-ae could also be seen by his side at the test launch of the country’s Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile last Thursday, which the elder Kim said was intended to ‘strike fear into the enemies’.
The state denied the child existed for some time, but now she is often referred to as the ‘most beloved daughter’.
In an unlikely turn of events, her name was first revealed in the West by US basketball star Dennis Rodman, who held her as a baby on one of his much-publicised trips to North Korea.
He told the Guardian in 2013: ‘I held their baby Ju-ae and spoke with Ms Ri [Sol-Ju, Kim’s wife] as well.
‘He’s a good dad and has a beautiful family. Kim told me, “I’ll see you in December.”‘
Earlier this month, the South Korean National Intelligence Services (NIS) said Ju-ae is ‘living a life of luxury’ as most of her fellow citizens face a food crisis that is leaving them undernourished, according to the United Nations.
The NIS claimed the leader’s daughter is home-schooled in Pyongyang, and spends her free time skiing and swimming.
They said Kim is particularly happy that she’s ‘very good’ at horse-riding.
Sunday’s launch of a short-range ballistic missile into the sea east of the Korean Peninsula was condemned as a provocation by the chief nuclear envoys to the US, Japan and South Korea.
The range of the weapon – it travelled a distance of around 500 miles – suggests South Korea could be among its potential targets.
It was tested amid an increasingly tense atmosphere on the peninsula.
The US has recently been carrying out the biggest military drills of their kind in years in the region alongside their allies in the South.
In response to the latest launch, South Korea said the drills would continue as it maintains a readiness to ‘overwhelmingly’ respond to any provocation by their neighbour.
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