North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has handed his teenage daughter a leadership role in the regime’s powerful "Missile Administration," the body that oversees Pyongyang’s nuclear forces, South Korean media reported Monday.
The girl, Ju Ae, who is believed to be 13 or 14 years old, was assessed by South Korean intelligence received on Sunday to be acting as a "missile general director" while authorities monitor developments at the ongoing Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, the reports said.
The daughter is receiving briefings from generals and issuing directives.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service recently told lawmakers that her public profile signals she is also in the "stage of being designated as a successor," adding that circumstances have been seen where she provides opinions on policy, The Associated Press multiple rocket launcher in Pyongyang, touting it as among the most powerful of its kind.
State media showed rows of launch vehicles and said the rockets, which Kim claimed rival short-range ballistic missiles and use artificial intelligence in their guidance systems, have "completely changed" modern artillery warfare, Reuters Kim was re-elected general secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea on Feb.22, a decision announced by state-run media following the party’s Ninth Congress.
North Korea has suspended all meaningful diplomacy with the United States and South Korea since the collapse of a 2019 summit between Kim and President Donald Trump.
This came over disagreements about sanctions relief in exchange for steps to wind down Kim’s nuclear and missile program.