Barely a week after she was spotted for the first time in public, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un's daughter has made a second public appearance with her father, fuelling speculations that she is being primed as his successor.
The 'beloved child,' believed to be Kim's second child named Ju Ae and about 9 or 10 years old, was seen with her father on Sunday as the duo took group photos with scientists, technicians, officials and other workers involved in the "test-launch of its Hwasong-17 ICBM."
She was first unveiled to the outside world last weekend in state media photos showing her observing the North's intercontinental ballistic missile. Clad in a white puffy coat and red shoes, the girl was seen walking hand-in-hand with Kim as a huge missile loaded on a launch truck was seen in the background.
North Korea's state media KCNA described her as Kim's 'most beloved or precious child.' A series of pictures released by KCNA showed her in a long, black coat with a black fur collar, holding her father's arm.
Some images showed the child and Kim in front of a line of uniformed soldiers before a massive missile atop a launch truck. Ju Ae was seen clapping her hands or talking to her father as people cheered in the background. Her mother Ri Sol Ju was however not visible in any of the photos on Sunday.
"It is the truth taught by history that only when we become the strongest - not the weak - in the present world where the strength in showdown just decides victory, can we defend the present and future of the country and nation," KCNA reportedly quoted Kim during the event.
The photos were released by the North Korean government late on Saturday but it is not clear when the event happened.
Meanwhile, North Korea releasing the child's picture has prompted regional experts to wonder whether the girl is being positioned as a potential successor to Kim.
Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told AP that the state media underscoring her father's love for her further underscores the fact.
"Finally, both of her initial public appearances have been in the context of strategic nuclear weapons the crown jewels of North Korea's national defence capabilities. That doesn't strike me as coincidental," Panda added.
South Korea's spy service has assessed that the girl in the picture is Kim's second child, who is about 10 and whose name is Ju Ae. According to the National Intelligence Service, said her looks matched the information that she is taller and bigger than other girls of the same age.
The child Rodman saw?
As former NBA star Dennis Rodman detailed his 2013 trip to Pyongyang where he reportedly spent some time with Kim, he told the British newspaper The Guardian that he and Kim had a relaxing time by the sea with the leader's family and that he held Kim's baby daughter, named Ju Ae.
Kim has three children, born in 2010, 2013 and 2017, and the first child is a son while the third one is a daughter.
At the same time, many believe it is unlikely that the second daughter would be his successor since his firstborn is a son. North Korea is a deeply male-dominated and patriarchal society, spurring questions as to how a daughter can be Kim's successor.
"We've been told that Kim has three children, including possibly a son. If this is true, and if we assume that the male child who has yet to be revealed will be the heir, is Ju Ae truly Kim's most precious,' from a succession standpoint?" said Soo Kim, a security analyst at the California-based RAND Corporation. I think it is too early to draw any conclusions, she told AP.
Soo believes this might be a ploy on the part of North Korea to distract the US and South Korea in light of North Korea's intensifying nuclear and missile threat.
That said, many believe Kim Jong Un cannot make his son his successor if he thinks he lacks leadership. Analyst Cheong Seong-Chang of the private Sejong Institute in South Korea believes Kim may be preventing potential pushback for choosing a daughter as a fourth-generation leader, so he likely brought her to a successful ICBM launch event to help public loyalty toward him be carried on smoothly to his daughter.
"When a king has many children, it's natural for him to make his most beloved child as his successor, Cheong told AP.
