Kim visits barracks with daughter to mark army founding anniversary

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited the barracks of the country's general-grade officers together with his daughter to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the armed forces, Pyongyang's state media said on Wednesday.

In a speech at a banquet on Tuesday following his visit, Kim praised the Korean People's Army (KPA) as "the strongest troops in the world", according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"For the everlasting peace, prosperity and development on this land, we've developed great and absolute power while enduring so many sufferings and pain," Kim said, apparently pointing to the North's nuclear force.

Photos released by the KCNA on Wednesday showed Kim's apparent second child, Ju-ae, sitting between her father and mother Ri Sol-ju at the banquet table, surrounded by ranking military officers for a photo shoot, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Kim revealed his daughter to the outside world in November 2022, as Pyongyang's state-controlled media released photos showing them attending the test-firing of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile.

The state media called Ju-ae the leader Kim's "respected" daughter, changing its previous manner of naming her as his "beloved" daughter.