{"id":56884,"date":"2023-12-14T17:03:39","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T08:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=56884"},"modified":"2023-12-14T17:04:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T08:04:13","slug":"high-ranking-n-korean-officials-question-whether-kim-ju-ae-could-succeed-her-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/high-ranking-n-korean-officials-question-whether-kim-ju-ae-could-succeed-her-father\/","title":{"rendered":"High-ranking N. Korean officials question whether Kim Ju Ae could succeed her father"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">North Korean leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, has recently been making repeated appearances at major military events, which has led to rumors that the young girl will succeed her father as leader of the country in the future. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, high-ranking officials in North Korea say that it is &#8220;impossible&#8221; for Kim Ju Ae to become her father&#8217;s successor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Upon being told that some analysts in South Korea believe that Kim Ju Ae will be the successor to her father, a high-ranking source in North Korea told Daily NK on Nov. 11 that &#8220;I don\u2019t understand why they say that. If you let a woman take power in the fourth generation, the last name of the fifth-generation leader will be different. That doesn&#8217;t make sense. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When you name a successor, you think of the future. Succession is establishing the fourth generation to serve as a basis for the fifth generation.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In short, the source argued that Kim Ju Ae&#8217;s descendants would have a family name other than Kim, a family name associated with the country&#8217;s so-called Paekdu Bloodline, and that this would make a fifth generation succession impossible to achieve. The source&#8217;s argument puts on display the power of patriarchal beliefs in North Korean society; namely, that children must take their father\u2019s last name and only sons may become successors to keep familial lines going.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>N. Korea intensifies idolization of Kim Jong Un by presenting him as a &#8220;wise father figure&#8221;\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In fact, some analysts say that North Korea&#8217;s leadership is not putting Kim Ju Ae on display at major events to establish her as successor but rather as part of a strategy to intensify idolization of her father.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;The North Korean leadership hasn&#8217;t finished bolstering Kim Jong Un\u2019s unitary leadership system,\u201d an expert at a South Korean policy think tank told Daily NK, speaking on condition of anonymity. \u201cNorth Korea&#8217;s leadership is focusing on intensifying efforts to idolize Kim Jong Un, not establishing a succession. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even during the recent Fifth National Conference of Mothers, the propaganda focused on highlighting [Kim Jong Un\u2019s] image as a loving father of the Socialist Grand Family.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In fact, after that conference ended, <em>Rodong Sinmun<\/em> focused on promoting Kim\u2019s image as a wise, warm father, writing, \u201cEveryone cried and cried again, saying there were no other hardworking fathers of the people like our Supreme Leader [Kim Jong Un].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The expert&#8217;s argument suggests that the goal of the National Conference of Mothers was two-pronged: idolizing Kim Jong Un as the father of a great socialist family and using mothers to intensify ideological indoctrination at home to prevent young people from ideologically defecting from the regime. The expert essentially argues that the conference had nothing to do with the succession process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, ever since Kim Ju Ae began appearing in public, North Korea began idolizing the Kim family under the slogan \u201cprotecting the Paekdu Bloodline to the death,\u201d likely as part of efforts to prevent people from being concerned about her social status, which to many North Koreans would be lower than a son.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWorkers&#8217; Party officials recognize Comrade Kim Yo Jong [Kim Jong Un\u2019s sister] as part of the Paekdu Bloodline, but they don\u2019t see her as noble,\u201d the high-ranking source in North Korea told Daily NK. \u201cTo resolve this issue, it makes sense for [the daughter] to participate in revolutionary history with the Supreme Leader from the time she\u2019s young.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Kim Jong Un takes his daughter to military events to &#8220;justify development of nuclear weapons&#8221;\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Broadly speaking, a major reason Kim Jong Un has been taking his daughter to major military events is to justify his government&#8217;s efforts to develop nuclear weapons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kim Ju Ae first appeared in North Korean media at the launch of the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile in November of last year. At the time, state-run media outlets ran several photos of the father and daughter walking hand-in-hand with the missile in the background, commenting that the elder Kim would continue to strengthen the country\u2019s nuclear arsenal &#8211; the \u201cpowerful sword to protect peace\u201d &#8211; in terms of quantity and quality to bring about the \u201cbright smiles and beautiful dreams of future generations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Basically, state media aimed to present Kim Jong Un as the leader who developed nuclear weapons for the future generation, while his daughter was to be seen as a symbol of that future generation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In lectures <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/lectures-for-n-korean-government-officials-praise-leadership-of-kim-jong-un\/\">conducted for officials<\/a> within the Workers&#8217; Party of Korea, Ministry of State Security, Ministry of Social Security, and other major agencies after North Korea\u2019s successful launch of a military spy satellite on Nov. 21, speakers focused on praising the greatness of Kim Jong Un for \u201cmaking North Korea a space power through his excellent leadership.\u201d Notably, n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">o mention was made of Kim Ju Ae during these lectures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_53328\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53328\" style=\"width: 696px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-53328\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/20221124_mdh_kim-696x464-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/20221124_mdh_kim-696x464-1.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/20221124_mdh_kim-696x464-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/20221124_mdh_kim-696x464-1-630x420.jpg 630w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53328\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kim Jong Un with his wife and daughter in a photo published by state media on November 19, 2022. (Rodong Sinmun-News1)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe content of recent political workshops for officials continues to focus on how nuclear weapons have eliminated the clouds of war and opened the path for the untouchable Juche Revolution to last 100 years, and that North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapons are aimed at creating a future without war,\u201d the high-ranking source told Daily NK.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In short, North Korea&#8217;s leadership continues to stress the legitimacy of developing nuclear weapons by calling for continued weapons development to bequeath to future generations a secure nation without war.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As such, North Korea will likely use Kim Ju Ae\u2019s appearances at major military events as a tool to justify its development of nuclear weapons. However, her appearances are likely to focus attention on the country&#8217;s succession rather than on criticism of North Korea\u2019s advancement of its nuclear program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWith more than 85% of Kim Ju Ae\u2019s activities focused on the military, our fundamental perception of North Korea\u2019s advancement of its nuclear weapons and missiles is growing a bit blurred as we see it through the frame of succession,&#8221; Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) told Daily NK.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In short, Hong argues that some analysts are focusing on whether Kim Ju Ae will succeed her father rather than analyzing the fundamental reasons why the North Korean leadership is having her appear at test launches related to the country\u2019s nuclear program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe North Korean government wants to dilute the provocative threat posed by the advancement of its nuclear weapons by shifting attention to Kim Ju Ae,\u201d KINU&#8217;s Hong said. \u201cAs the debate over the succession continues, North Korea is likely to use the debate to sow confusion as part of its psychological warfare against South Korea and the United States.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK\u2019s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/faq\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20231211-1\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20231201-5\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, has recently been making repeated appearances at major military events, which has led to rumors that the young girl will succeed her father as leader of the country in the future. However, high-ranking officials in North Korea say that it is &#8220;impossible&#8221; for Kim Ju [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":54008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,681],"tags":[1031,1656],"class_list":["post-56884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics","tag-succession","tag-dprk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>High-ranking N. 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Korean officials question whether Kim Ju Ae could succeed her father","og_description":"North Korean leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, has recently been making repeated appearances at major military events, which has led to rumors that the young girl will succeed her father as leader of the country in the future. 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