New missile test in North Korea, Kim’s daughter also present

More missiles, more images carefully orchestrated by power. Kim Jong Un’s North Korea once again showcases its arsenal with a new test of cruise missiles launched from the destroyer Choe Hyon, while the leader watches the operation from a distance, accompanied by his teenage daughter.

Images released by state media portray the scene as a ritual of power: glowing screens, uniformed officers, missiles striking targets off the western coast. According to the official version, the test was meant to verify the reliability of the strategic control system and strengthen the country’s nuclear deterrence capability. But behind the rhetoric of national security one can mostly glimpse the logic of a regime that continues to base its legitimacy on military display.

The presence of the leader’s daughter, increasingly often at her father’s side during parades and weapons tests, does not appear accidental. For many analysts it is a political message aimed both domestically and abroad: the image of a dynasty preparing its future and reaffirming the continuity of the family power that has guided North Korea for three generations.

The test comes as the United States and South Korea have launched new joint military exercises, maneuvers that Pyongyang has for years described as a provocation or even a rehearsal for invasion. The regime’s response is the same seen many times before: new demonstrations of force and promises to further strengthen its strategic arsenal.

The result is a now familiar spiral on the Korean Peninsula: military exercises on one side, missile tests on the other, threats and increasingly harsh statements that fuel a climate of permanent tension.

Kim insists on the need to maintain a “powerful and reliable” nuclear deterrent, while the North Korean navy is gradually being equipped with increasingly sophisticated weapons systems, some of which may have nuclear capabilities. In a country still isolated and subject to heavy international sanctions, the military apparatus nevertheless remains the absolute priority of power.

Every test is celebrated as a technological achievement and as proof of national self-reliance. But for many observers it is also a powerful tool of domestic propaganda. In a political system that tolerates neither opposition nor pluralism, missiles are not just weapons, they are symbols. They are meant to show the world the ability to strike far away, but above all to remind the population who truly holds power.

Klevis Gjoka