Before the launch of the nuclear-armed nation’s greatest ballistic missile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un first made his daughter public on Saturday.
State news agency KCNA stated on Saturday that North Korea tested a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday.
The presence of Kim’s daughter, whose existence had never before been made public, was an unanticipated addition to the occasion.
According to observers, her sudden appearance boosts the possibility that the fourth generation of Kims may inherit nuclear weapons as well as the leadership of the totalitarian regime.
The girl, who can be seen in photos holding hands with her father and wearing a white puffy coat as they observe the enormous rocket, is unidentified by KCNA.
Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the U.S.-based Stimson Center said, “This is the first observed occasion where we have seen Kim Jong Un’s daughter at a public event. It is highly significant and represents a certain degree of comfort on Kim Jong Un’s part that he would bring her out in public in such fashion.”
Kim’s taking his daughter to an ICBM test and publishing photos of the two of them watching the launch, according to Jenny Town of 38 North, a North Korea research organisation based in Washington, suggests he is not about to yield to pressure to slow down his weapons programmes or resume negotiations.
(with inputs from agencies)
