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North Korea’s state-run Korean Central Television reported on Nov. 20 that the country had test-fired a “new-type” Hwasong-17 ICBM under the direction of leader Kim Jong-un on Nov. 18. This photo, a still from KCTV, shows Kim with his daughter. (KCTV/Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attracted notice with his appearance alongside his wife and daughter at the site of a test launch of the new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The Rodong Sinmun, which is the newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), reported in its Saturday edition that Kim “came out to the site for the historic major strategic weapon test-fire, a crucial milestone in bolstering up the nuclear forces of the DPRK, together with his beloved daughter and wife.”

Kim made public the existence of his daughter when she accompanied him to the site of a test launch of the “new-type ICBM Hwasongpho-17” on Friday at Pyongyang International Airport, also known as Sunan Airfield. This was the first time Kim allowed North Korea a glimpse at his daughter.

The photographs shared by the Rodong Sinmun showed Kim holding his daughter’s hand as he viewed the Hwasong-17 missile on a transporter erector launcher and watching the moment of the missile’s launch from the command station with his wife and daughter.

In the images, the daughter appeared in a white winter coat with black pants and flat reddish-purple shoes. She showed an equal facial resemblance to Kim and mother Ri Sol-ju and stood roughly above her father’s shoulders in height.

To date, North Korea has not made any information public about Kim and Ri’s children, but intelligence authorities believe they have three: a son born in 2010, a daughter born in 2013, and another child born in 2017. The girl appearing in the pictures was believed to be their second child.

The foreign press also took major notice of the daughter’s surprise appearance. The AP quoted observers as saying that “Kim taking his family to a missile test site indicated he was confident in the weapon’s successful launch.”

Reuters referenced analysts as saying that the daughter’s “unexpected appearance raises the prospect that leadership of the totalitarian state could pass to a fourth generation of Kims, and suggests that nuclear weapons will be part of that inheritance.”

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer; Jung In-hwan, staff reporter

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