On Wednesday night, Pyongyang played host to a parade of about a dozen intercontinental ballistic missiles for the 75th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s army.
The parade was the largest display of the country’s nuclear capabilities that have been seen outside its borders, following a year of unprecedented missile tests.
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and his young daughter, Kim Ju Ae, took centre stage at the massive military parade. Kim Ju Ae is the leader’s second-born and is believed to be around 10 years old. Wednesday night’s public appearance is her fifth, suggesting that she is being primed as the future heir and leader.
Kim Jong Un himself was the third son of Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s second leader. It’s widely believed — but unproven — that Kim Jong Un had his older half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, assassinated after the eldest son fell out of favour and was replaced as heir.
Human Rights Watch deems North Korea as “one of the most repressive countries in the world.” The reigning Kim family maintain dynastic power through “threats of execution, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, and forced hard labor in detention and prison camps.”
Wednesday night’s parade featured the newest hardware in Kim’s growing nuclear arsenal, including what experts said was possibly a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) he could test in the coming months.
The development of a solid-fuel ICBM would be a major leap forward for North Korean nuclear technology, compared with its existing liquid-fuel Hwasong-17 missiles. The Hwasong-17s require pre-launch fuel injections and can’t remain fuelled for prolonged periods. The solid-fuel alternative would give North Korea a nuclear missile that is quicker to mobilize and harder to detect.
Ten Hwasong-17 ICBMs were also showcased at the parade. These missiles have already demonstrated a potential to reach deep into the U.S. mainland.
The unprecedented number of Hwasong-17s at Wednesday’s event suggests progress in efforts to produce those weapons in larger numbers, Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, told the Associated Press.
During a major political conference in December, Kim Jong Un called for an “exponential increase” in the country’s nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting “enemy” South Korea and the development of more advanced ICBMs.
Before the parade of missiles, which was saved until the end of Wednesday’s celebration, Kim Jong Un and his family greeted crowds in the brightly illuminated Kim Il Sung Square, named for his grandfather, the nation’s founder.
As the clock struck 9 p.m., Kim Jong Un joined his wife and daughter on a balcony above the square as thousands of goose-stepping soldiers marched below. They chanted, “Defend with your life, Paektu Bloodline,” referring to the Kim family’s lineage, named after a volcano that North Koreans consider sacred.
A ceremonial cavalry unit trotted through the square riding white horses, another symbol associated with the Kim family’s dynastic rule. The broadcast described one of the animals as “most beloved” by Kim’s daughter.
Whether Kim Ju Ae will succeed her father is a matter of speculation but Duyeon Kim, a senior security analyst, told the Associated Press that North Korea’s leader is “obviously showing her off intentionally and, at a minimum, he seems to be trying to reiterate the importance, status, and legitimacy of a direct Kim bloodline offspring.”
“It’s too soon to assume that she will be his heir because the son has always succeeded the throne in North Korea,” she added.
South Korean media have speculated that Kim has three children — born in 2010, 2013 and 2017 — and that the first child is a son and the third is a daughter.
— With files from The Associated Press
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