正恩氏の娘を「偉大嚮導者」と報道　朝鮮中央通信

【ソウルＡＦＰ＝時事】北朝鮮の朝鮮中央通信（ＫＣＮＡ）は１６日、金正恩（キム・ジョンウン）朝鮮労働党総書記の娘ジュエ氏について、「偉大嚮導者」の敬称を使って報じた。この呼称は通常は高位の指導者に付されるもので、専門家は、正恩氏の有力な後継者であることを示唆した可能性があるとしている。（写真は、北朝鮮・平壌の温室を視察する金正恩〈キム・ジョンウン〉朝鮮労働党総書記〈中央〉と娘のジュエ氏〈左から２人目〉）
　ＫＣＮＡは正恩氏とジュエ氏が温室栽培農園を訪れたことを報じた際、朝鮮語版でも英語版でも「偉大嚮導者」を複数形で使った。両氏を指したとみられる。英語版では「偉大嚮導者（複数）が党、政府、軍の幹部を伴い農園を視察した」と伝えた。
　韓国・北韓大学院大学の梁茂進（ヤン・ムジン）教授はＡＦＰに対し、ジュエ氏が指導者を示す敬称で呼ばれたのは「初めて」だと語った。
　世宗研究所北朝鮮研究センターの張成昌氏は、「嚮導」は通常、「最高指導者かその後継者」を指す場合にのみ使われると指摘。「金ジュエに対するこうしたレベルの個人崇拝は、金正恩の後継であることを強く示唆している」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/03/18-15:58）

North Korean state media on Saturday referred to leader Kim Jong Un's teenage daughter as a great person of guidance, employing a term usually reserved for senior leaders and hinting at her status as a potential successor, analysts said.
Both the English- and Korean-language versions of an official Korean Central News Agency report on Kim and his daughter's visit to a greenhouse farm used the plural form of the honorific, suggesting it applied to both of them.
The great persons of guidance, together with cadres of the Party, the government and the military, went round the farm, read the English-language report, which ran with images of the pair.
Analysts said it was the first time Kim's daughter -- never named by Pyongyang's state media, but identified as Ju Ae by South Korean intelligence -- had been described as such by the North.
This is the first expression of elevating Kim Ju Ae to the ranks of a leader, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
The North Korean term hyangdo -- meaning guidance -- is typically only reserved for top leaders or successors of the isolated regime, said Cheong Seong-chang, director of Center for Korean Peninsula Strategy at the Sejong Institute.
This level of personal worship for Kim Ju Ae strongly suggests that she will succeed Kim Jong Un as the next leader of North Korea, Cheong added.
- At Kim's side -
Kim Jong Un -- the grandson of North Korea's founding leader Kim Il Sung and the third generation of the Kim family to lead the country -- married his wife Ri Sol Ju in 2009, according to Seoul's spy agency.
Ju Ae was first introduced to the world by Pyongyang's state media in 2022, when she accompanied her father to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
She has since been seen at many of her father's official engagements, including military drills, a visit to a weapons factory, a stop at a new chicken farm and a military parade.
In an image released by Pyongyang on Saturday, Ju Ae was seen using binoculars to observe recent paratroop drills, standing beside her father and senior military officials.
Prior to 2022, the only confirmation of her existence had come from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who made a visit to the North in 2013 and claimed he'd met a baby daughter of Kim's called Ju Ae.
Seoul had initially indicated that Kim and his wife Ri had their first child, a boy, in 2010, and that Ju Ae was their second child.
But last year, Seoul's unification minister said that the government was unable to confirm for sure the existence of Kim's son.