When you play the game of Kims, you win or you die.
Kim Jong Un’s 13-year-old daughter could find herself in a dangerous succession battle with her own ruthless aunt after the North Korean dictator appointed his only known child as his heir according to a new report.
Kim Ju Ae has been picked to lead the nuclear-armed hermit nation when her father — who is just 42 but was previously morbidly obese — dies, according to South Korea’s spy agency.
South Korean spies believes the teen, who is already as tall as her diminutive dad, has started her training to lead the Kim dynasty.
When the time comes, however, the teen may face a direct challenge from her powerful aunt, Kim Yo Jong, according to Rah Jong Yil, the former South Korean ambassador to the UK and deputy director of Seoul’s intelligence service.
Yo Jong, 38, holds significant political and military support in North Korea, with the dictator’s sister widely seen as the second most powerful person in a country where its leaders think nothing about assassinating a rival, even if they’re family.
“It depends on the timing, but I believe if Kim Yo Jong believed that she had a chance of becoming the top leader then she would take it,” Raa told The Telegraph..
“For her, there are no reasons to refrain from putting into effect her own political project,” he added, noting that a power struggle “is probable.”
Pyongyang has seen this before when Kim took over his father’s position in 2011, with the then-young dictator mounting an attack on his uncle and mentor, Jang Song Thaek.
Kim had Jang arrested on charges of committing “anti-party, counter-revolutionary, factional acts,” with the uncle found guilty and executed by firing squad in 2013.
Kim’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, the one-time heir to North Korea, was also killed when a pair of women smeared the deadly VX nerve agent on his face at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport in 2017.
The suspects were foreign nationals dumped into thinking they were carrying out a prank for a Japanese YouTube show. However, the assassination was carried out as four North Korean agents watched from the sidelines, The Guardian reported at the time.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said they are closely monitoring Ju Ae, noting that it would be significant if she accompanies her father during a Workers’ Party Congress scheduled for later this month.
First appearing in public at a long-range missile test in November 2022, Ju Ae has since accompanied her father to an increasing number of events, including weapons tests, military parades and factory openings, according to Seoul.
She was also with Kim during his visit to Beijing last September, which marked his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in six years.
Ju-Ae’s public appearances at high-profile events suggest that she will be her father’s heir despite North Korea’s deeply conservative culture and tradition of male-dominated leadership, according to the NIS’s briefing to lawmakers.
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