North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accompanied his daughter to watch a football match to mark his late father’s birthday, the latest in a series of public appearances that have fueled rumors that he is being groomed for a future leadership role going. The presence of Kim and his “beloved” daughter, identified as Kim Joo Ae, believed to be about 10 years old, added “joy and excitement” to Friday’s formal game between cabinet and defense ministry staff members. be provided.
The Defense Ministry team won the football match 3–1 and then defeated them again in a tug of war. The ceremony was held in memory of the late Kim Jong Il, the country’s former dictator and father of the current ruler.
North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper released photos of Kim and his daughter laughing and cheering from VIP seats, where they sat center stage among senior government and military figures. Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s sister and a key foreign policy official, was seen sitting in the row behind him.
Kim Joo Ae made her sixth public appearance, although it was the first not directly related to her father’s nuclear weapons goals. She first appeared in official media in November, when Kim Jong Un accompanied her to watch an intercontinental ballistic missile flight test.
Kim Joo Ae also accompanied her father on visits to the troops, where she sat in the seat of honor at banquets with her parents and generals. She also appears alongside her father on a series of new postage stamps printed on Friday to commemorate November’s ICBM test, which North Korea has deemed a success.