At the age of 10, the middle child of North Korea’s “respected” leader, Kim Jong-un, has just gotten a huge promotion: She is now “respected,” too. 

The designation means that Kim Ju-ae, photographed seated between her doting parents at a dinner Wednesday in a luxury hotel on an island in the Daedong River in central Pyongyang, is at the top of the line to succeed Mr. Kim, who turned 39 last month but may be having health problems.

The child, whose puffy cheeks and overall appearance give her a distinct physical resemblance to her hefty father, is shown in sober, conservative attire — a dark suit and white blouse — while bemedaled generals line up behind her and her parents in photographs carried by Pyongyang’s state media on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army. 

It’s the word “respected,” in a dispatch by the North’s Korea Central News Agency, that proves that Ju-ae has moved up as heir apparent. In three previous appearances with her father, beginning with the test-firing of a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile in November, she was described as “beloved” — warm enough to show she ranked ahead of her siblings but less definitive than “respect,” 

In what would have been a carefully calculated leadership decision, KCNA applied the word “respected” to father and daughter in the same sentence. Commanding officers “greeted with the warmest reference the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un whom they wanted to see even in their dreams,” KCNA said, “when he arrived at the lodging quarters together with his respected daughter.”

The appearance of father and daughter on such an occasion again showed Ju-ae’s importance in a pecking order in which she’s apparently bypassed all other potential candidates, including her aunt, Kim Yo-Jong, Mr, Kim’s younger sister, who’s notorious for outspoken attacks on America and South Korea but may not even have been at the banquet. Ju-ae also has an older brother and a younger sibling, who’ve gone unmentioned.

Ju-ae’s appearance was all the more significant considering the importance of the day. The Korean People’s Army, a term that covers all services including the navy and air force, was gearing up for a parade in which they again showed off the country’s military might. Kim had his daughter in tow when he paid what KCNA called “a congratulatory visit to the lodging quarters of general officers.”

After a year in which Mr. Kim has ordered nearly 100 missile tests, though, his anniversary speech was surprisingly long on flourishes but short on details. He mentioned neither missiles nor nuclear warheads and issued no threats against the North’s main enemies, America, Japan, and South Korea.

“The more we look back on how our revolutionary cause is defended,” KCNA’s English translation quoted him as saying, “the noble blood shed by our army officers and men for victory and their endless feats.” Those words left the impression the “respected leader” was not interested in going beyond rhetoric while arranging for his succession well in advance of the fateful day.