With a glamorous wife, a strong and outspoken sister, and a young daughter all sharing the spotlight with a ruthless dictator, you might be forgiven for thinking Kim Jong Un has a keen interest in raising up the women of North Korea.
The elevation of Kim's female relatives coincides with the growing economic and social power of women living inside the secretive regime.
Researchers who have visited North Korea several times and interviewed dozens of defectors have noticed a new, cashed-up rising class of women who are the breadwinners of their families.
North Korea has always been a deeply patriarchal society, but experts say that a growing number of women in the country are less interested in marriage, and are more focused on money — especially new ways to make it.
Faced with crippling sanctions and left reeling after natural disasters and famine, many North Korean women decided to stop relying on the state and start taking care of themselves and their families.
Their slow rise left Kim with two choices: Crush the movement, or use it to his regime's advantage.
Disaster, famine and the rise of North Korea's women
North Korean women have long been relegated to the traditional role of wife and mother.
But everything changed in the 1990s when a series of floods and droughts destroyed crops and triggered a devastating famine.
The exact death toll is unknown, but it's believed anywhere from 240,000 to 3 million people starved to death between 1994 and 1998.
Unable to rely on the state to feed them, women did what it took for their families to survive.
While men were mostly consigned to fields and factories under the communist regime, women took control of the black market, exchanging food and starting market stalls for extra cash.
Pyongyang's ruling class had no choice but to accept these female hustlers, according to Bronwen Dalton, a North Korea specialist from the University of Technology in Sydney.
"There was a rupture as women started to participate in market activities in the aftermath of the severe economic crisis that hit North Korea in the mid-1990s," she said.
"These activities were not formally condoned, but came to be informally accepted by the state as the only practical option open to feed North Korean families."
Dalton has written a book on this phenomenon called North Korea's Women-Led Grassroots Capitalism, with her colleague Kyungja Jung.
Their research was based on extensive interviews with 52 defectors living abroad, as well as insights from three trips Dalton took to North Korea.
They heard from women who said they realised there were far more attractive options than what the state was able to pay them.
One woman they interviewed left her state-sanctioned job as a potato researcher and went on to work in black market trades in rice, metals, petroleum and cash exchange.
Eventually, she ventured into the illegal but lucrative industries of drugs and people smuggling.
After three decades of improving their economic standing, many North Korean women expect a greater say over their destinies as well.
Women take greater control, but some pay a heavy cost
As women's economic power increased, so did their control over sex, family planning and choice in partners, according to Dalton.
But this has come at a price.
"Divorce and other extra-marital arrangements has grown exponentially," she said.
"The Pyongyang elite are adopting [more liberal] South Korean romantic practices [in] relationships, but the poorer women from outside Pyongyang we interviewed are strategically approaching relationships as a way to make money."
Women from poorer backgrounds are looking to gain financial power from relationships, and are becoming more selective in their marriage choices, researchers found.
And while women may be gaining more economic control, Dalton stressed the country was far from being a utopia for women.
"Like many other socialist countries, despite state rhetoric, North Korea has failed to achieve gender equality in reality," Dalton said.
Most importantly, she says the people they interviewed noticed a marked shift towards favouring girls — a huge change in a traditional Confucian society that has long valued sons over daughters, because women were the ones looking at new ways to make money.
"In North Korea we are even starting to see what's called 'daughter fever'," she said.
North Korea remains a tough place to be a woman
While the lives of some North Korean women have improved, it's important to stress that they are still living in a dictatorship with limited freedoms and intense surveillance.
A 2023 report by Human Rights Watch found gender equality remained far from achieved, with women and girls subjected to abuses including sexual and gender-based violence, discrimination and stereotypes.
The report also noted that domestic violence and sexual harassment go largely unreported in North Korea.
And while some women, like Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong, have gained more visibility and political power, their leadership has not resulted in significant policy change.
Dalton said North Korean women would no doubt be facing a backlash as they seek more control over their lives.
"When women gain power, they are even more vulnerable to retribution from the men that seek to control them," she said.
"Violence against women is extreme … because they are challenging the social, economic and potentially the political status quo, they are currently in a deeply perilous position and violence against them has become even more disproportionate."
Still, Dalton says that when you walk the streets of Pyongyang, you often see women embracing their power and flaunting their new-found wealth and status.
Many of the defectors who spoke to Dalton said they did not identify as victims.
The power of owning Chanel from the black market
Since first visiting in 1992, Dalton said it's clear North Korea has undergone massive social change, even while remaining a strict totalitarian state.
"Pyongyang trendsetters like logo-emblazoned goods," she said.
It's now fairly typical to see brands like Chanel on the streets of the capital, with those designer goods procured from the black market to get around the West's tight sanctions.
And it wasn't just limited to Pyongyang and the elite, with 80 per cent of those interviewed from poorer provinces in the country.
Dalton said one young woman interviewed from one of the poorest villages revealed how she chose to save money by going without lunch just to save up for a pair of pumps.
This growing emphasis on appearance is not just about status, according to Dalton.
"If you look successful, you're less likely to be hit for bribes [from police or officials] because of an assumption of power," she said.
When it comes to fashion icons, there is one woman in North Korea who wields more influence than any other.
"They mimic Ri Sol Ju, the wife of Kim Jong Un, who wears designer-style clothing and accessories," Dalton said.
The first lady of North Korea often accompanies her husband in public settings, wearing Chanel and Dior, and holding Kim's hand for the photographers.
This is a huge departure from previous North Korean leaders.
The dictator's father Kim Jong Il, for instance, is believed to have had two wives, but they never appeared in public with him.
Kim Jong Un and his wife have also started bringing along their daughter to public events.
Could a woman ever rule male-dominated North Korea?
It's believed Kim Jong Un and Ri Sol Ju have three children — two girls and a son — although their existence has never been officially confirmed by North Korea.
But Kim Ju Ae, who is about 10 years old, is the only one who regularly appears at banquets and missile launches with her father.
"Kim showing his daughter on the world stage was no accident," Dalton said.
"This is a three-generation totalitarian state – you have to be agile and pivot."
But North Korea has only ever been ruled by the male members of the family.
Dalton said Kim's daughter was clearly being groomed for some public-facing role in the future.
But it remains unlikely, in a society as patriarchal as North Korea, that she could ever be a viable heir apparent.
Instead, like her mother and her aunt, Kim Ju Ae is being used as propaganda to prop up a man's government.
"Kim is seeing a social trend and has two options," Dalton said.
"Eradicate or twist it to suit the regime."
