SEOUL: South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter, Ju Ae, who recently accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognised successor.
The teenager drew global attention earlier this month when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, though some have suggested Ju Ae has an older brother who is being groomed in secret as the isolated and nuclear-armed country’s next leader.
South Korea’s spy agency “assesses that she (Ju Ae) secured sufficient ‘revolutionary narrative’ needed to strengthen her position as a likely successor,” following her China trip, lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters after being briefed by the agency.
“The agency perceives Kim Ju Ae as the recognised heir and sees her participation in the China visit as part of completing that succession narrative.”
She was publicly introduced to the world in 2022, when she accompanied her father to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korean state media have since referred to her as “the beloved child,” and a “great person of guidance” — “hyangdo” in Korean — a term typically reserved for top leaders and their successors.
Before 2022, the only confirmation of her existence had come from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who made a visit to the North in 2013 and claimed he had met a baby daughter of Kim’s named Ju Ae.
Seoul had initially indicated that Kim and his wife Ri had their first child, a boy, in 2010, and that Ju Ae was their second child.
But in 2023, Seoul’s unification minister said that the government was “unable to confirm for sure” the existence of Kim’s son.
Kim Jong Un inherited power after his father’s death in late 2011 and has overseen four nuclear tests on his watch, with the latest one conducted in 2017.
MP Lee said Thursday that rumours Kim has another child besides Ju Ae, including one with a disability or studying abroad, are “not considered credible”.
“In particular, in the case of studying abroad, the NIS noted that no matter how much one tries to conceal such a fact, it would inevitably become known, and thus the possibility is considered very low,” he added.
