South Korea’s intelligence agency has informed lawmakers that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has selected his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, as his successor.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said its assessment is based on multiple indicators, including her increasingly visible role at major state events. In recent months, Kim Ju Ae has appeared alongside her father at high-profile occasions, including military ceremonies and official visits abroad. Notably, she accompanied him to Beijing in September for her first known overseas trip.
According to lawmaker Lee Seong-kwen, the NIS believes Kim Ju Ae has moved from being informally groomed to entering the stage of formal successor designation. Her repeated presence at key national events — such as the anniversary of the Korean People’s Army and visits to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun — as well as signs that she has expressed views on certain policy matters, were cited as evidence of her elevated status.
The intelligence agency is also closely monitoring whether she will attend the upcoming Workers’ Party congress, North Korea’s most significant political gathering, held every five years. The congress is expected to outline Pyongyang’s priorities in areas such as foreign policy, defense strategy and nuclear development for the next five years.
Kim Ju Ae, believed to be around 13 years old, is the only publicly acknowledged child of Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol Ju. South Korean officials have previously suggested that Kim may also have an older son, though he has never appeared in state media.
Her existence first became public in 2013 when former NBA player Dennis Rodman mentioned meeting her during a visit to North Korea. She made her first confirmed appearance on state television in 2022, when she was shown inspecting an intercontinental ballistic missile site with her father.
Since then, her public profile has expanded steadily. She has been prominently positioned in official photographs — at times standing beside her father rather than behind him — a detail considered symbolically significant in a country where state imagery is carefully choreographed. Analysts note that such positioning is unusual for anyone other than the supreme leader.
Observers have also highlighted that she appears with privileges not commonly afforded to ordinary citizens, including specific dress and hairstyle choices. Some lawmakers in Seoul interpret her role at public events as signaling that she is being treated as a de facto second-ranking figure within the regime.
The prospect of a female successor has raised questions, given North Korea’s traditionally patriarchal structure. However, Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, already holds a senior position within the ruling Workers’ Party and is regarded as an influential figure, suggesting that women can wield substantial authority within the leadership circle.
It remains unclear why succession planning appears to be advancing while Kim Jong Un is still relatively young. Nor is it evident what policy direction a future leadership under Kim Ju Ae might take. When Kim Jong Un assumed power, some had anticipated reforms due to his Western education, expectations that largely went unmet.
If confirmed, the designation of Kim Ju Ae would mark the continuation of dynastic rule into a fourth generation of the Kim family, maintaining a political system that has centered power within the same lineage for more than seven decades.
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