North Korea unveils stamps featuring Kim’s daughter, will she succeed her father?
Is Kim Ju Ae the future leader of North Korea?
Kim Ju Ae is set to become an increasingly familiar face to North Koreans and watchers around the world now that she will be on a new set of the country’s stamps.
On February 14th, Pyongyang announced that Kim Ju Ae, the youngest daughter of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, would be featured on the country’s new propaganda stamps, which suggests the 9-year-old girl may be the new heiress of the hermit kingdom.
The series of stamps will honor the test firing of North Korean missiles carried out in November 2022. Five of the stamps will feature the face of the young Ju Ae, a choice that was certainly not made at random.
North Korea has never officially identified Kim’s daughter by her first name and the state-owned stamp compnay only described her as the “beloved daughter” of Kim Jong Un on their website.
For An Chan-il, the head of the World Institute for North Korean Studies, these stamps could mark the “official start of Kim Ju Ae’s life as her father’s successor,” as quoted by AFP.
Recently, Radio Free Asia (RFA) also reported that North Korean authorities have asked girls and women with the same first name as the dictator’s daughter to change it.
According to two unnamed sources that spoke with RFA, the local governments of Jeongju and Pyongsong cities have ordered all Ju Ae to change their names on their birth certificates.
The daughter of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un has made several appearance in public since her existence was official recognized in North Korean state propaganda, including a recent military banquet on February 9th.
Late last year, Kim’s daughter made her first public appearance during the broadcast of a prerecorded launch of North Korea’s newest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17.
In the heavily-produced video, Kim’s daughter could be seen walking next to her father and holding his hand as the two oversaw the successful launch and celebrated with other family members and government officials.
