North Korea released an image on Thursday of leader Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter firing a pistol, weeks after photos showed her shooting a rifle — once again stoking speculation she is being groomed as heir.
Kim’s teenage daughter Ju Ae featured prominently in state photos published to mark the closing stages of the nuclear-armed country’s key ruling Workers’ Party congress last month.
She has long been seen as next in line to rule the country, a perception stoked by a string of recent high-profile outings, as well as a rare image released late last month of her firing a rifle at a shooting range.
Pyongyang’s state media released an image of Ju Ae firing what looked like a pistol with one eye closed, flames shooting from the muzzle of the gun.
She was attending an event, along with her father, at a “major munitions factory” that produces new pistols and other “portable light arms”, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
State media images showed the duo, donning matching leather jackets — often seen as a symbol of power in North Korea — being briefed by officials as they inspected the facility.
There, leader Kim visited the factory’s “shooting gallery” where he got to test the “new-type” pistol himself, and expressed satisfaction over the weapon’s “excellence”.
The Kim family has ruled North Korea with an iron grip for decades, and a cult of personality surrounding their “Paektu bloodline” dominates daily life in the isolated country.
Despite her young age, “it appears the regime is trying to cultivate the image of a strong and formidable woman,” Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Kyungnam University, told AFP.
“The pistol-shooting scene clearly serves to signal that she is cultivating the attributes of a military leader.”
Ju Ae was publicly introduced to the world in 2022 when she accompanied her father to an intercontinental ballistic missile launch.
Before then, the only confirmation of her existence had come from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who visited the North in 2013.
© 2026 AFP
