The photograph shows a happy family. After a 35-day public absence, the corpulent Kim Jong Un has been pictured this week with his wife Ri Sol Ju, and sitting between them their daughter, Kim Ju Ae, as they dine in the presence of North Korean military officers weighed down with medals.
Is Kim Jong Un’s daughter being lined up to take over North Korea? The photograph has only heightened speculation that the stage is now being set for her to be leader, as the fourth generation of Kim to rule the country. This week North Korean state media gave Kim Ju Ae the honorific of ‘respected’ when writing about the event, an adjective which had previously been bestowed upon leaders of the DPRK and their spouses.
The occasion for the photograph was the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), North Korea’s military force, which was established in 1948. A military banquet preceded a lavish parade.
These events are frequently used as an opportunity to display the North’s latest conventional and nuclear weaponry.
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