South Korea’s intelligence agency asserted Thursday that North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un has chosen his adolescent daughter as his designated successor, citing her escalating role in state affairs and public outings as evidence of a deliberate grooming process.
The National Intelligence Service briefed lawmakers on the assessment, pointing to 13-year-old Kim Ju Ae’s frequent appearances alongside her father at marquee occasions, including her inaugural foreign jaunt to Beijing in September.
Lawmaker Lee Seong-kwen relayed the spy service’s view: “As Kim Ju Ae has shown her presence at various events, including the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army and her visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, and signs have been detected of her voicing her opinion on certain state policies, the NIS believes she has now entered the stage of being designated as successor.”
Fellow parliamentarian Park Sun-won noted her evolving duties signal policy contributions and treatment as the regime’s effective deputy leader.
Ju Ae, offspring of Kim and spouse Ri Sol Ju, remains the sole publicly recognized child, though Seoul suspects an elder brother exists but stays concealed from media. Her existence surfaced via US basketball icon Dennis Rodman, who in 2013 told The Guardian he “held baby Ju Ae” on a Pyongyang visit.
Debuting on state broadcasts in 2022 clasping her father’s hand during a missile inspection, she has since featured prominently, projecting a milder facade for the autocrat. Recent imagery depicts her towering beside him, donning long tresses — taboo for most peers — and luxury attire inaccessible to ordinary citizens.
The NIS plans vigilant monitoring of her potential participation in the Workers’ Party congress slated for later this month, a quinquennial conclave unveiling Pyongyang’s five-year blueprint on diplomacy, defense and atomic aspirations.
The revelation prompts queries in the hermit kingdom’s male-dominated hierarchy, where dynastic rule has spanned three Kims, yet female ascension seemed improbable until Kim’s influential sibling Yo Jong shattered norms in the party’s central committee.
Should Ju Ae ascend, her vision could redefine the isolated nation’s trajectory, though past optimism for liberalization under her Swiss-schooled father proved unfounded.
Neither Pyongyang nor Seoul’s presidency offered immediate reaction.
