The life of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s young teenage daughter is shrouded in mystery; even such basic details as her name and age have never been officially confirmed. But she may be poised to one day become the country’s next leader.
South Korea’s spy agency said on Monday that intelligence indicates that Kim’s teenage daughter is in line to be his heir, according to lawmakers who attended a closed-door meeting with the country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS).
NIS Director Lee Jong-seok said that the girl could be considered to be her father’s successor as he fielded questions from lawmakers about her political positioning, according to the lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who spoke in a briefing following the meeting.
Kim’s daughter is reportedly named Kim Ju Ae and around the age of 13. She has been called Kim’s “most beloved” and “respected” child by state media. North Korea has not released details on the girl, but public appearances with her father since 2022 have stirred speculation that she is being positioned to succeed him.
Kim has historically been secretive about his family. He introduced his wife, Ri Sol-Ju, to the public only well after they had been married. It is believed that the girl in question is the second of the leader’s three children, but the number and order have not been confirmed.
Reports of Kim’s daughter’s name come from former NBA player Dennis Rodman, who told The Guardian he held Un’s daughter during a 2013 trip to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
She made her first public appearance in 2022, when Kim brought her to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. By 2023, she was appearing more frequently in public with her father and was featured on some of the country’s stamps.
The NIS told South Korean lawmakers in March 2023 that the girl was being home-schooled in Pyongyang and enjoyed horseback riding, skiing, and swimming, The Associated Press reported.
The agency said she was her father’s “most likely” heir in January 2024, its first such assessment on the possible succession.
The North Korea news agency KCNA published photos last month of the girl driving an army tank with her father riding behind her. Earlier in March, state media published photos of the two firing pistols during an inspection of an ammunition factory.
The NIS said on Monday that the photos of the leader’s daughter were meant to eliminate doubts about a female heir and stress her military capability, according to lawmakers. Since its founding in 1948, North Korea has never had a female supreme leader.
South Korean ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sun-won said that the photos of the girl are meant to pay “homage” to Kim’s military appearances when he was preparing as the heir to his father, Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011.
The NIS director said when asked if the current supreme leader’s sister, Kim Yo Jong––regarded as North Korea’s number two political figure––opposes his daughter’s potential rise that Kim Yo Jong has no independent power, lawmaker Lee said during the briefing on Monday, citing “reliable intelligence” from the NIS.
South Korean lawmakers also said earlier this year that Kim was taking steps to position his daughter as his heir, citing the NIS.
“In the past, the NIS described Kim Ju Ae as being ‘in study as successor’ but today the expression used was that she ‘was in the stage of being internally appointed successor,’” Lee said to reporters after a closed-door briefing with representatives of the spy agency in February.
Neither of Kim’s other reported children have ever been seen in public, and no child’s existence, aside from that of the daughter believed to be his heir, has been confirmed by the state’s leadership.
If the girl succeeds her father, the family’s rule would extend into a fourth generation.
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