N. Korean youth 'furious' at Kim Ju-ae's privileged lifestyle, defector says

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un receives a kiss on the cheek from his daughter Ju-ae at a New Year's celebration performance in Pyongyang on Sept. 1. [Korean Central TV]

Kim Jong-un's increasingly visible efforts to position his daughter Kim Ju-ae as his successor are fueling resentment among North Korean youth, a defector has claimed.

Ryu Seong-hyeon, a former North Korean military officer who defected to the South, appeared Friday on the YouTube channel "Johanbeom TV" to share his views on Kim Ju-ae's public activities and sentiment inside North Korea.

Ryu said young North Koreans harbor deep resentment toward Kim Ju-ae, describing the feeling as "an enormous sense of defiance." When asked whether the attitude reflected growing political awareness among the younger generation, he was blunt: "No. This is a contradiction of the system."

According to Ryu, North Korean children are taught from the time they enter nursery school to say, "Thank you, our respected father Marshal Kim Jong-un."

"Even among siblings, if parents only dote on the first and second child, the youngest gets jealous," he said. "When young people your own age are out weeding fields and doing labor every day, and then you see someone the same age touring airfields in sunglasses, adults of the same generation — men and women alike — are completely furious."

However, Ryu said most of the youth who harbor such resentment are likely to "live out their lives as commoners at the bottom," and predicted the North Korean regime would not easily collapse without outside intervention.

"In liberal countries, even when the government struggles, individuals don't go under — but North Korea is designed to thoroughly crush individuals while keeping only the regime intact," he said. "Unless a spark is dropped from outside, the North Korean system will be the longest-lasting on earth."

Ryu also pushed back on the view that Kim Yo-jong, vice director of the Korean Workers' Party, is effectively the regime's second-in-command. "Kim Yo-jong knows very well that she must not overstep her brother," he said. "People inside North Korea don't really see her as the number two — they interpret her role as helping Kim Jong-un get things done."

Kim Ju-ae made her first public appearance in November 2022 at the test launch of the Hwaseong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile. In 2023, she stood before an ICBM wearing a black padded jacket from French luxury brand Christian Dior priced at $1,900. She has also been photographed on multiple occasions in a leather jacket and designer sunglasses.

North Korea, meanwhile, enacted the Anti-Reactionary Ideology and Culture Law in 2020, strictly banning Western cultural influences. See-through clothing in particular is subject to crackdown as an anti-socialist phenomenon. Despite this, Kim Ju-ae appeared at a housing district completion ceremony in Pyongyang in May 2024 wearing a sheer outfit that left her arms exposed.

Britain's BBC reported in May that Kim Ju-ae's wardrobe choices may serve as a propaganda device — projecting the young heir as a mature and powerful leader while simultaneously signaling a privileged status that sets her apart from ordinary citizens.

Jeong Seong-jang, vice president of the Sejong Institute, told the BBC that "wearing high-end leather clothing is a way of flaunting a special status," adding that "luxury goods, leather jackets and fur coats are precious items that ordinary North Koreans cannot wear."

The National Intelligence Service told the National Assembly's intelligence committee during a briefing Tuesday that Kim Ju-ae has in effect entered the stage of being designated as successor.

dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com