The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has attended many photo ops with his daughter Kim Ju-ae in recent months, adding to speculation she will be designated as the future supreme leader.
Jean H Lee, journalist and former Pyongyang bureau chief for the Associated Press, tells Helen Pidd what we know about the teenager.
“North Korea is very secretive when it comes to the first family,” Jean tells Helen. “They only refer to her as the ‘beloved daughter’, or the ‘cherished daughter’, or the ‘respected daughter’… What we do know is that she has been presented to the people. She’s been all over the state media. I mean, the pictures and the videos are just incredible. But we don’t know exactly when she was born.”
Jean explains the meaning behind the images we have seen of the daughter, including ones of her firing a pistol.
“I will say that this image of a woman firing a pistol goes back to a traditional image in North Korea… So behind closed doors and within their mythology and within their storytelling, that was very much a part of the making of the future leader.”
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