Kim Jong Un is joined by his heir-apparent teenage daughter for ‘invasion rehearsal’ drills

Kim Jong Un was joined by his heir-apparent teenage daughter during an ‘invasion rehearsal’ firing live rockets in tests.

The rocket tests are believed to likely be a response to the US-South Korean military training which North Korea sees as its own invasion rehearsal.

The North Korean supreme leader has been seen with his young daughter Kim Ju Ae – believed to be 13 – more and more often as South Korean intelligence believe she has been selected as his successor.

Kim, 42, and Ju Ae watched on as a row of 12 600mm ultraprecision rocket launchers off North Korea’s east coast on Saturday, North Korean state media said.

South Korean military said it detected the rocket launches, saying about 10 ballistic missiles were fired from North Korea’s capital region toward the eastern sea.

The launches violated the UN Security Council resolutions banning ballistic activities by North Korea, the South Korean national security council said.

Ju Ae has been accompanying her father at high-profile events since 2022, going abroad to Beijing with him, joining him at a shooting range and also an International Women’s Day event where they were seen holding hands.

Speculation that she is being groomed to be his heir – as his only known child with his wife Ri Sol-ju – has been surrounding her for years.

The South Korean spy agency reported she had already been named as his successor in mid-February.

North Korean news agency, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), cited Kim as saying the rocket testing would expose enemies within the 420-kilometer (260-mile) striking range, to ‘uneasiness’ and give them ‘a deep understanding of the destructive power of tactical nuclear weapons’.

South Korean capital Seoul sits around 240miles from North Korean capital Pyongyang.

‘If this weapon is used, the opponent’s military infrastructure within its striking range can never survive,’ Kim said, according to KCNA. 

He reportedly referred to South Korea and U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.

These launchers blur the lines between artillery and ballistic missiles putting them in a grey area in terms of the UN ballistic activity ban.

They can create their own thrust and are guided during delivery. North Korea has said some of these systems are capable of delivering nuclear warheads. 

 The springtime US-South Korean Freedom Shield training, a computer-simulated command post exercise, is to run through March 19. North Korea often reacts to the exercise with its own weapons tests and fiery rhetoric.

The same day as the missile test, Kim and Ju Ae were pictured planting trees in Pyongyang alongside military officers.

The Kim family has ruled North Korea for three generations since 1948 – beginning with Kim Il Sung, then Kim Jong Il in 1994, followed by Kim Jong Un in 2011 till today.

While Ju Ae appears to be the clear favourite in line for the succession, she does have a potential rival – her ambitious aunt, Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong.

Yo Jong, 38, is said to be planning to seize control for herself should the dictator die or become incapacitated.

She is well-respected within political and military ranks and is widely seen as the most powerful person in North Korea after Kim.

Family feuds have been a common feature of the Kim dynasty and often end in violent death.

Kim executed his own uncle and mentor Jang Song-thaekin 2013 over allegations of having committed ‘anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts’.

After his arrest in 2011 he had been charged with illicit affairs with women, harboring ‘politically-motivated ambition’, weakening ‘the party’s guidance over judicial, prosecution and people’s security bodies’ and obstructing ‘the nation’s economic affairs’.

Meanwhile, Jong Un’s older half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, fell out of favour with the dictator and was subsequently assassinated by having VX nerve agent smeared onto his face in Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017.

It is widely believed he died on the orders of the North Korean government.