‘Physically weak’ but vital: N. Korea’s Kim lauds women in Women’s Day speech

SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un praised the “physically weak” but “strong-willed” women of his country, state media reported on March 9, calling them a “solid buttress of the revolution”.

In a speech in Pyongyang commemorating International Women’s Day, Mr Kim highlighted the hard work carried out by North Korean women.

“Our contemporary women... have become a solid buttress of the revolution,” Mr Kim said, according to an English dispatch from the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“Though physically weak, they are obviously strong-willed, their plain faces assuming courage and the wrinkles on them denoting their strenuous exertion,” he added.

Mr Kim’s wife Ri Sol Ju and daughter Ju Ae attended the weekend event.

Photos released by KCNA showed Ju Ae – long viewed by analysts as a possible successor in the secretive, nuclear‑armed state – sitting next to her father and holding his hand.

Party officials and foreign diplomatic dignitaries also attended the event, which included performances following Mr Kim’s speech, KCNA added.

Mr Kim’s speech was received with “fervent cheers” from an audience “overwhelmed with great excitement”, the news agency said.

KCNA did not name Ju Ae in its report, referring to her instead as Mr Kim’s “beloved daughter”.

South Korea’s spy agency has said Pyongyang appears to have begun the process of designating Ju Ae as Mr Kim’s successor.

Ju Ae’s latest official appearance follows her visit to a shooting range in late February. State media published a photo of her at the time peering through a rifle scope with her finger on the trigger, smoke rising from the barrel.

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. AFP