SEOUL, MAR 12: Picture this: North Korea’s boss Kim Jong Un, side-by-side with his teenage daughter, glued to a screen in a conference room, watching cruise missiles blast off from a shiny new destroyer. That’s the scene state media painted on Wednesday, right as Pyongyang ramps up threats against US-South Korean war games.
Photos from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) show the duo eyeing the action from the Choe Hyon—a naval destroyer that’s barely a year old—firing strategic cruise missiles that nailed target islands off North Korea’s west coast.
Kim watched the Tuesday launches via video link and drove home the point: North Korea needs a “powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent” at all costs, KCNA reported (no daughter shoutout there). The girl, widely believed to be 13-year-old Kim Ju Ae, has been Dad’s shadow at big events since late 2022—think military parades and missile parties. South Korea’s spies even pegged her last month as a top pick for heir apparent.
Kim called the test a showcase of the navy’s “strategic offensive posture” and a hands-on drill for the troops. (He was there in person for a similar Choe Hyon missile show last week, but no kiddo that time.)
This all heats up just as the annual US-South Korean Freedom Shield drills kicked off Monday—an 11-day mix of computer sims and field training that North Korea slams as invasion practice. Kim’s fiery sister, Kim Yo Jong, didn’t hold back Tuesday: The drills prove the US and South Korea’s “inveterate repugnancy” toward the North, and Pyongyang will make them feel the sting of its “war deterrence.”
Classic timing—North Korea loves syncing its missile flexes with these ally exercises.
