North Korean leader Kim Jong Un placed his second-born daughter at the front of a recent military banquet in a possible sign that she is being groomed as his successor, The Washington Post reported.

Kim's daughter, Kim Ju Ae, believed to be about 10 or 11, was photographed between her father and mother in the middle of a group of the country's top military officials, a position that The Washington Post notes is typically reserved for the country's leader.

Cheong Seong-chang, an expert in North Korea leadership at the Sejong Institute near Seoul, told the Post that media presentations like this show an "active push" by Kim's regime to raise the daughter's profile.

"Given these developments, there is no longer a question about whether Kim Ju Ae has been chosen as Kim Jong Un's successor," Cheong said.

Cheong told CNN that North Korean state media previously released a story that described Kim Ju Ae as Kim's "most beloved" child.

"Considering these, there is no longer any doubt that Kim Ju Ae has been appointed as the successor to Kim Jong Un, and it is necessary to pay attention to how this will affect North Korea's domestic and foreign policies in the mid- to long-term, and how North Koreans will accept the succession of the fourth generation," he said.

Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of International Studies at Ewha University in Seoul, told CNN that "by ostentatiously including his wife and daughter, Kim wants observers at home and abroad to see his family dynasty and the North Korean military as irrevocably linked."

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