A girl identified as Kim Jong-un’s second daughter by Chinese experts has been edited out of state propaganda in a shocking change.
The youngster was one of several children who performed a song for the dictator and his wife Ri Sol-ju at North Korea 's National Day celebrations in September.
Experts on the InDPRK blog suggested she could be Kim’s daughter because of her appearance, her prominence in the broadcast and her apparent familiarity with Ri Sol-ju.
Her face was broadcast again on November 19, just hours after the real Kim Ju-ae – the dictator’s only known child – made her North Korean TV debut.
But a few hours later, when the same TV channel replayed the same patriotic montage, the girl’s face had been edited out and replaced.
NK News, a website which monitors the country from neighbouring South Korea, said the change revealed the regime to be “sensitive to her image”.
The outlet suggested that Kim Jong-un might have “felt it inappropriate” to broadcast images of his unannounced second daughter so soon after revealing his first.
However, others suggested that the regime might be signalling she is not Kim’s daughter after all.
Michael Madden, a leading expert on North Korea’s elite, said: “It is highly probable that state media edited out the footage of the singer as a way to clear up confusion and misinformation.
“If there had in fact been misconceptions, it would be in the interests of the regime's publicity cadres to clarify that.”
Individuals who have provoked the wrath of the regime have also been edited out of North Korean propaganda in the past.
But Mr Madden, who runs the North Korea Leadership Watch website, doubted that it would be the reason in this instance.
“It is standard practice in North Korean state media for recalcitrant and ousted officials to be cropped out or airbrushed from photos and videos,” he said.
“This almost always happens with senior officials were dismissed from office and executed.
“It is highly probable that this is not at all the case with the girl singer at the concert and would not apply to her.”
The girl, if not a scion of the dictator himself, could still have the blood of the ruling family in her veins.
Kim Yo-jong, the tyrant’s sister, is known to be a mother and was also present for the girl’s performance in September, where she was seen wiping away tears.
But for now the real identity of the child remains shrouded in mystery.
