(Adnkronos) – Daughter Ju Ae is the recognized heir of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. This is the conclusion reached by the South Korean intelligence agency, according to what was communicated to journalists by Seoul parliamentarian Lee Seong-kweun, informed on the matter by the agency itself. Ju Ae accompanied her father on a high-profile visit to Beijing in early September, her first official trip abroad, where Kim met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Analysts have long considered her the likely heir to her father, although there has been speculation that Ju Ae has an older brother who is being secretly groomed to become the next leader. The South Korean intelligence agency speaks of “a revolutionary narrative sufficient to strengthen Ju’s position as likely heir” after her trip to China. “The agency perceives Ju Ae as the recognized heir and sees her participation in the visit to China as part of the completion of the succession narrative,” the parliamentarian reported.
North Korean state media published a photo of her inside the country’s armored train, along with her father and other officials, upon their return from Beijing. Seoul intelligence said it learned that Kim and his daughter “stayed at the North Korean embassy” during their stay in China and were surrounded by a tight security network, including biometric information, “long part of North Korea’s security protocol,” according to Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who heads the World Institute for North Korea Studies. “The fact that Ju Ae received the same level of protection as Kim Jong Un further demonstrates that she is a likely successor,” he told AFP. (continued)
Ju Ae was publicly introduced in 2022, when she accompanied her father to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Since then, North Korean state media have called her “the beloved child” and a “great guide” – “hyangdo” in Korean – a term typically reserved for top leaders and their successors. Before 2022, the only confirmation of her existence came from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who visited North Korea in 2013.
Seoul 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 the government “was unable to confirm” the existence of Kim’s son. For MP Lee, rumors that Kim has another child, perhaps with a disability, perhaps studying abroad, according to various speculations, “are not considered credible.” “In particular, in the case of studies abroad, intelligence has observed that, however much one tries to hide such a fact, it would inevitably come out, and therefore the possibility is considered very low.”
