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Kim Jong Un chooses teen daughter as heir
- shevy-java 9mo agoWho knows what is true here. But, IF we assume this is true, then it would also mean he has no male heir per se. Which brings us back to the first part ... whether that is true. When Kim was young, he lived in Europe, in particular Switzerland, so perhaps some offspring also live semi under cover.
- elil17 9mo agoWould that be true? Perhaps he chose his daughter because she is his eldest heir or because of merit compared to his other children.
- skeeter2020 9mo agoThis is a hilariously naive take! We have power-hungry leaders in much more visible environments that are nowhere near the dictatorship that NK is, and they don't show any loyalty whatsoever to tradition or pursuit of meritocracy.
- elil17 9mo agoRight, it's completely up to Kim personally, so why would he care about the tradition of having a male heir?
- RobotToaster 9mo agoKim Jong Un was his father's fifth child, and he has an older brother.
- jihadjihad 9mo ago> News of Ju Ae's existence first emerged through an unlikely source: the American basketball player Dennis Rodman, who revealed to The Guardian newspaper back in 2013 that he "held baby Ju Ae" during a trip to the secretive state. Man, I had forgotten all about Rodman and his North Korean antics.
- elil17 9mo agoWould that make her the first woman to be a communist dictator?
- bracketfocus 9mo agoHow progressive!
- awakeasleep 9mo agoIt’s a tricky question because she and Kim Jong-un are not dictators by title, it’s the shorthand we and the we use to describe them. Really he is the head of one of the bodies of nominally democratic government that has disproportionate veto power, and there isn’t a mechanism to unseat him. That makes it a tricky question because it leaves the definition of dictator up to our interpretation. However, there have been female dictators in history that were dictators with less ambiguity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Perón https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Perón The question of communism is also largely one of interpretation. If you ask someone who sees communism in a good light, there has never been a true communist state. If you ask anyone else, there isn’t a distinction between communism and repressive dictatorship.
- canjobear 9mo ago> It’s a tricky question because she and Kim Jong-un are not dictators by title, it’s the shorthand we and the we use to describe them. This can't be the standard for whether we call someone a dictator. Similarly Stalin held no government title through the 1930s. Would you say it's hard to say whether he was a dictator because he was officially just a party secretary?
- awakeasleep 9mo agoI phrased my comment in hopes of avoiding an argument about definitions. It seems like a tedious quibble. Check out the three dictators I linked. That’s interesting!
- mothballed 9mo agoThat was obvious when he had her walking in front of him months ago leading the charge during some inspections. He doesn't allow anyone to do that.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- ufo 9mo agoConsidering that the primary source is South Korea's spy agency, I think it's worth taking this news with a grain of salt. When north and south korea release news about each other it is always hard to tell which parts are factual and which parts are propaganda.
- shevy-java 9mo agoThat seems plausible. He could have a son who is living elsewhere - just as he himself was brought up outside of North Korea too.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- CSMastermind 9mo agoIt seems odd he would announce her so early? When did he get announced as the hier to his father? Also, I know he was Western-educated. Is the plan to send her to school in Europe?
- joncrane 9mo ago1) To get ahead of any transition drama 2) Because he's sick
- thinkingtoilet 9mo agoCould he if he wanted to? I imagine most places wouldn't take her.
- mytailorisrich 9mo agoThey haven't announced anything. You can send your children abroad if you have never released pictures publicly. His daughter has been in the media so much that it is now impossible for her to be sent abroad discreetely.
- canjobear 9mo agoThere was no announcement. This is just a conjecture based on Kremlinology (Pyongyangology?) by a South Korean government agency.
- throw0101a 9mo ago> It seems odd he would announce her so early? When did he get announced as the hier to his father? In his book Dictator's Handbook [1], de Mesquita explains that transitions from one leader to another is risky because the folks that help keep the leaders in power (e.g., military, and specific persons there-in) may not know if they'll be kept around by the new leader. The new leader may wish to bring in their own people who would be more 'grateful' to them for raising their position. By indicating things early, everyone can build a 'rapport' with her, and everyone becomes comfortable that the status quo (which everyone at the top is benefiting from) will continue. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dictator%27s_Handbook
- keiferski 9mo agoThis title really needs says Seoul added, as in the original article. NK has made no official announcements.
- cedws 9mo agoI watched a documentary a while ago and I think it said that Kim Jong Un's sister plays a big part in maintaining the regime. I wonder if she pulled some strings in this decision to select Kim Ju Ae as heir, perhaps because she's more pliable, or under Kim Yo Jong's thumb. A North Korean patriarchal society probably wouldn't be amenable to a woman telling a male heir what to do.
- SirFatty 9mo agoMaybe she's the mother.
- rvz 9mo ago> South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday. Whether if this is true or not, this speculation isn't "news" unless it is 100% confirmed through various sources. The fact that the South Korea spy agency is the only (unconfirmed) source; there is only quite weak evidence to go with and it remains to be only rumors at this point. In general, It is completely off-topic here as per the guidelines from [0] > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- 9999px 9mo agoNever trust news about the DPRK from South Korean spy agencies. It's only a matter of months before it's proven to be nonsense. They're the ones always saying crap like "North Koreans push their trains by hand" or "Kim Jong Un claims to have invented the hamburger." Only the most brainwashed westerners buy it, but it's enough to keep the DPRK hate at a simmer.
- ck2 9mo agoHow much more of his family has he had executed now? Since it's the worst dictatorship with nuclear weapons, I guess it's going to take centuries if ever for them to fall So much suffering there, the stories they get out are absolutely insane And of course the nighttime lighting sat view says it all about the people vs their oligarchs
- presbyterian 9mo ago> How much more of his family has he had executed now? Only a couple, they've just been "executed" several times.
- Molitor5901 9mo agoI am very surprised it was not his sister, given her prominent role in recent years on diplomacy, and the Olympics.