North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is planning to make his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, the potential successor, Sky News has reported, adding that he is looking to portray his family as a dynasty like the British Royal Family.
A veteran foreign correspondent and expert on North Korea, Jean H Lee, told the British news channel that the Korean dictator has been making his daughter, believed to be 10-year-old, make public appearances to events which have themes related to “weapons” and “missiles”.
So far, Kim Ju Ae has made six public appearances. Talking about one of the memorable events she attended, Lee recalled her appearance at a military banquet to mark the 75th anniversary of the country’s army in February.
“When you look at these pictures she’s front and centre. She is there. It’s like this tableau of father, mother, and daughter. And I think what people noticed, of course, first and foremost was, ‘oh my gosh, he’s presenting his daughter’. What does that mean?”, Lee, who reported from inside North Korea from 2008 to 2017, told the latest episode of the Sky News Daily podcast.
The veteran journalist pointed out that it was similar to when the dictator’s grandfather presented his wife and young son, Kim Jong Un’s father Kim Jong Il, at the military parade on the same day 75 years earlier.
When asked if North Korea, a conservative and patriarchal country, will allow a female leader to helm the post, Lee said that there have been a number of women working in high office in the secretive country.
“We’ve had female rulers in societies at times where many women had no rights. Queen Victoria, for example,” Lee said.
“But I do think one thing about North Korea that’s very interesting is that women do take on leadership roles. It’s a communist or it’s a socialist country,” she added.
(With inputs from agencies)
