SEOUL: North Korean state media referred to leader Kim Jong Un’s adolescent daughter as a “great person of guidance” on Saturday (March 16), using a word often reserved for senior leaders and implying her standing as a potential successor, analysts said.
The English and Korean versions of an official Korean Central News Agency report about Kim and his daughter’s visit to a greenhouse farm included the honorific in the plural form, implying that it extended to both of them. The English-language story, which included photographs of the two, read, “The great persons of guidance, together with cadres of the Party, the government, and the military, went round the farm.”
Analysts claimed it was the first time Pyongyang’s state had named Kim’s daughter.
Yang Moo-jin, head of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP that this is the first statement of promoting Kim Ju Ae to the ranks of “leader.”
According to Cheong Seong-chang, head of the Sejong Institute’s Center for Korean Peninsula Strategy, the North Korean name “hyangdo” (meaning guidance) is traditionally reserved for “top leaders or successors” of the isolated state. This level of personal worship for Kim Ju Ae strongly suggests that she will succeed Kim Jong Un as the next leader of North Korea,” Cheong said in a statement.
