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South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that it believes Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter is nearing a designation as North Korea’s future leader, according to a closed-door briefing relayed to parliament.
The assessment by the National Intelligence Service was provided to lawmakers on Thursday as North Korea prepares for its biggest political gathering later this month, where Kim is expected to outline major policy goals for the next five years and take steps to tighten his authoritarian grip. South Korea’s NIS said it is closely monitoring whether Kim’s daughter—believed to be named Kim Ju Ae and around 13 years old—appears with him before thousands of delegates at the upcoming Workers’ Party Congress, lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun said after attending the meeting.
Lee said NIS officials told lawmakers that the agency has been tracking whether Kim Jong Un is presenting his daughter in a way that suggests succession planning. In remarks relayed by Lee, the NIS’s language about her status has shifted from earlier descriptions of “successor training” to what Lee characterized as a “successor-designate stage,” which he said he viewed as significant.
Lee linked the assessment to what he said were multiple signals: Kim Ju Ae’s growing presence at high-profile military events; her inclusion in the family’s visit to Kumsusan Palace of the Sun; and signs that Kim Jong Un was beginning to seek her input on some policy matters, according to Lee’s account of the briefing.
Kim Ju Ae has become more visible in North Korean state media over time, although the government has not published her name. Instead, state outlets have referred to her only in terms such as “respected” or “most beloved” child, the report said.
South Korean officials have said the belief that Kim Ju Ae is her name is based on an account by former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who recalled holding Kim Jong Un’s baby daughter during a trip to Pyongyang in 2013. South Korean intelligence officials believe she was born sometime that year. The briefing also came amid earlier South Korea assessments, including that Kim Jong Un and his wife likely have an older son and a younger third child whose gender is unknown, according to the report.
The NIS briefing described how Kim Ju Ae first appeared publicly at a long-range missile test in November 2022 and has since accompanied Kim Jong Un to an increasing number of events. Those appearances include weapons tests, military parades and factory openings, and she traveled with him to Beijing last September for Kim’s first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in six years on the sidelines of a World War II event.
Speculation about Kim Ju Ae’s succession role intensified last month after she joined her parents on a New Year’s Day visit to Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the sacred family mausoleum that displays the embalmed bodies of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Some experts cited the visit as the clearest sign yet that she is being positioned as the heir to her father, the report said.
Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute, said Kim Ju Ae’s first known visit to Kumsusan last month was also Kim Jong Un’s first visit there in three years. Given the palace’s status as a key symbol of the Kim family rule, Cheong said the trip should be seen as a symbolic gesture by Kim Jong Un to present his daughter as his heir ahead of his preparations for the major ruling party congress.
The Workers’ Party Congress in late February, last held in 2016 and 2021, could provide a stage for Kim Jong Un to formalize succession plans, analysts said. Cheong suggested one possible scenario would be giving Kim Ju Ae the party’s first secretary post or its No. 2 job, while noting that any such decision might not be immediately disclosed to outsiders. Other analysts said formal party roles might be constrained by party rules that require members to be at least 18, and argued that if Kim uses the congress to cement the succession, the signs may be more subtle, such as through official self-praise and messaging about the durability of the ruling system.
Koh Yu-hwan, a former president of South Korea’s Institute of National Unification, said the party might issue self-praise about how North Korea has survived longer than most other communist states and credit its longevity to a “successful inheritance of the revolution.” Koh said that if observers see comments like that, “it would be reasonable to think that Ju Ae has been cemented” as heir.