SEOUL – North Korea released an image on Thursday of leader Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter firing a pistol, weeks after photos showed her shooting a rifle — once again stoking speculation she is being groomed as heir.
Kim’s teenage daughter Ju Ae featured prominently in state photos published to mark the closing stages of the nuclear-armed country’s key ruling Workers’ Party congress last month.
She has long been seen as next in line to rule the country, a perception stoked by a string of recent high-profile outings, as well as a rare image released late last month of her firing a rifle at a shooting range.
Pyongyang’s state media released an image of Ju Ae firing what looked like a pistol with one eye closed, flames shooting from the muzzle of the gun.
She was attending an event, along with her father, at a “major munitions factory” that produces new pistols and other “portable light arms”, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
State media images showed the duo, donning matching leather jackets — often seen as a symbol of power in North Korea — being briefed by officials as they inspected the facility.
There, leader Kim visited the factory’s “shooting gallery” where he got to test the “new-type” pistol himself, and expressed satisfaction over the weapon’s “excellence”.
The Kim family has ruled North Korea with an iron grip for decades, and a cult of personality surrounding their “Paektu bloodline” dominates daily life in the isolated country.
Despite her young age, “it appears the regime is trying to cultivate the image of a strong and formidable woman,” Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Kyungnam University, told AFP.
