South Korea’s intelligence service believes Kim Ju-ae (13) has been designated as the new leader.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has chosen his 13-year-old daughter Kim Ju-ae as his heir, according to South Korea’s intelligence service.
It reports BBC Thursday.
The NIS intelligence service told lawmakers it was taking “a number of circumstances” into account, including Ju-ae’s increasingly prominent public presence at official events.
Ju-ae is the only known daughter of Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju. The intelligence service believes that Kim Jong-un also has an older son, but this son has neither been confirmed publicly nor shown in the North Korean media.
The news of Ju-ae’s existence first came from quite an unexpected quarter: the American basketball player Dennis Rodman. In an interview with the newspaper The Guardian in 2013, he shared that he had held baby Ju-ae in his arms during a visit to the closed country.
Ju-ae made her first public appearance in 2022, when she and her father appeared on state television.
There, she was seen holding hands with Kim Jong-un as they inspected North Korea’s newest intercontinental ballistic missile.
She has been pictured alongside her father at high-profile events in recent months, including a visit to Beijing in September.
Lawmaker Lee Seong-kwen told reporters that Ju-ae, who was previously described as being “trained” to be a successor, was now at the stage of “successor appointment”.
– As Kim Ju-ae has shown her presence at various events and that she has spoken out about state policy, the NIS believes that she has now entered the stage of being designated as a successor, Lee said.
It is unclear why Kim Jong-un, who is still relatively young at 42, is already naming his 13-year-old daughter as his heir.
Many have previously rejected the idea of a woman leading North Korea, which is considered a highly patriarchal society.
date:2026-02-13 02:00:00
Worth a look