North Korea has unveiled a new stamp featuring leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter, in what experts say is another sign of her rise as heir apparent to the nuclear-armed nation.
North Korean state media never mentioned the Kim children for years. But in November, during the launch of the country’s most powerful ballistic missile, Kim was pictured with his daughter.
North Korean stamps
Since then there have been several high-profile appearances by the princess, who has never been named in Pyongyang. South Korean spy agents believe she is Kim’s second child, who they call Ju Ae.
The state-run Korea Stamp Corporation unveiled a new series of stamps on Tuesday to commemorate the Nov. 18 missile launch — five featuring Kim and his daughter.
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The company described the unnamed girl as Kim’s “beloved daughter” in a caption describing the stamp on its website. The series will release on Friday.
‘The next leader’
Some experts say the daughter’s appearance suggests she is being groomed as the next leader, and the stamp further cements her place in the cult of personality surrounding the ruling Kim family.
The stamp “looks like the official start of Kim Ju Ae’s life as his father’s successor”, An Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher with the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP.
But others say it’s too early to tell, as Kim is still in her 30s and her daughter’s name has never been officially announced.
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“Throughout North Korea’s history, every time they officially named the country’s heir, they made sure people knew that person’s name,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
“It is still very likely that Ju Ae is only being used for (propaganda) … while Kim’s eldest son is being groomed as a successor behind closed doors.”