North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has handed sniper rifles to top party and military officials after a weeklong ruling party congress in Pyongyang. State media also released photos of his teenage daughter firing one of the guns at a shooting range, keeping talk of a possible family succession alive.
The choreographed event capped seven days of meetings that backed faster growth of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. It also highlighted the Kim family’s grip on power while suggesting Pyongyang might still talk to Washington if the terms change.
Sniper rifles as rewards for loyalty
Korean Central News Agency said the rifles were a sign of Kim’s “absolute trust” in senior officials and a reward for their work since the last congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea in 2021. The gifts were presented at party headquarters two days after delegates ended the gathering in the capital.
KCNA, the state’s official news outlet, often uses carefully staged images to send messages about power. In a country where many people worry about food and electricity, seeing elites receive rifles instead of plaques or bonus checks shows that loyalty and force remain central.
Teenage daughter steps into the frame again
In the new photos, Kim’s daughter, believed to be around 13 and named Kim Ju Ae by South Korean officials, wears a brown leather coat like her father’s and is shown taking aim as smoke rises from the rifle. She looks relaxed at the range, a detail analysts read as another step in building her public image.
Since first appearing beside her father at a long range missile test in November 2022, she has joined him at parades, factory visits and weapons displays, as well as a high profile trip to Beijing for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
For a teenager anywhere that would be a striking schedule; in North Korea it looks even more like grooming for a future role.
Kim Yo Jong moves deeper into party control
The same state media report confirmed that Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong now serves as general affairs director of the ruling party’s central committee after a promotion at the congress. The new title gives her a broader hand in internal management on top of her high profile role speaking to Washington and Seoul.
Analysts say putting her in charge of general affairs formalizes influence she already exercised through fiery statements and behind the scenes diplomacy. It fits a wider pattern in which younger loyalists are taking more visible roles in the leadership.
Nuclear plans, talk of dialogue and the question of succession
During the congress, delegates endorsed Kim’s plan to speed up North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, which outside experts say already threaten the United States and its allies in Asia.
At the same time, he repeated that he is open to talks with Washington if the United States drops its demand that the North scrap its arsenal first. AP journalist Kim Tong hyung calls it North Korea’s most important political meeting.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service recently told lawmakers it believes Kim is close to naming his daughter as heir, even though no formal announcement came at the meetings.
The agency and outside scholars pointed to state media language that the congress had “laid a solid foundation for the sacred effort to ensure and realize the glorious succession and development of our party” as a sign the leadership is thinking about a fourth generation of family rule.
Those words may sound distant from daily life, yet they suggest that images of a teenager calmly handling a sniper rifle are meant to blend family and power in the public mind. The new photos and titles do not prove a succession plan, yet they deepen the sense among observers that a transition has begun.
The main report on this story has been published by The Associated Press.
