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According to South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), Kim Ju-ae, the daughter of Kim Jong-un, is expected to follow her father as the supreme ruler of North Korea. Despite North Korea's daunting secrecy and Kim Jong-un keeping his family members out of the limelight, she has made several public appearances in the last year, raising questions about her capacity for leadership.
However, Ju-ae is assumed to be around ten years old currently.
The daughter, Kim Ju-ae, has been identified by South Korean authorities, even though her name and age are among the personally identifying information that North Korea withheld. Ju-ae made headlines when she was a baby because veteran NBA star Dennis Rodman said he was allowed to hold the child when they visited Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang in 2013.
Kim Jong-un is often seen making public appearances with his daughter Kim Ju-ae in North Korea
As stated by NIS, the North's authorised media has displayed military generals and other senior officials kneeling before her, and hailing her as Kim's "most beloved" or "respected" kid. These kinds of moments have led many experts from outside the family to speculate that the daughter was being groomed to be her father's presumptive heir.
As reported by The New York Times, based on Kim Ju-ae's growing attendance at public events, her degree of esteem, and her public acceptance, the National Intelligence Service of South Korea (NIS) stated in an inquiry released on Thursday, January 4, 2024, that she was Kim Jong-un's presumable heir.
Since Kim Jong-un is still young and did not have any serious health problems, the spy agency pointed out that there were still a lot of factors at play.
In November 2022, Ju-ae made her debut in public when she and her father went to see a long-range missile launch. Since then, she has travelled with Kim to significant official functions, such as military rallies, where she has shared the limelight with her father in North Korean media reports.
The father and daughter are frequently seen making affectionate behaviours such as stroking one another's faces and linking arms in the official media.
In a North Korean TV video from Sunday's New Year's Eve party in Pyongyang on December 31, 2023, the current Supreme Leader of North Korea was seen giving his daughter a peck on the cheek and giving her an embrace.
However, the South Korean government has refrained from conjecturing about the girl's position inside Pyongyang's clandestine administration up to this point. Officials from South Korea have stated that they are unsure of which kid would follow the current Supreme Leader, even though they believe the Kim family's dynastic rule will likely remain in the North even after Kim Jong-un passes away.
The NIS investigating reports did not refrain from suggesting that Kim could also have another son who is older than Ju-ae. Moreover, Kim Ju-ae is the only known kid of Mr. Kim to have made an appearance in public thus far.
Despite not being a monarchical nation, North Korea has experienced a dynastic regime since the conclusion of World War II. Presumably, the governing Workers' Party congress elects its top leader.
In actuality, though, the Kims have managed the nation from its inception much like an exclusive family business. The father and grandparents of Kim Jong-un each held power until their deaths.
Following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011, Kim Jong-un took control of the country. Experts and officials from across borders have been captivated by the topic of who would succeed him in terms of his dictatorship and the nation's rapidly expanding nuclear weapons, particularly in light of periodic questions over his health.
Analysts and experts indicated that Ju-ae would be the first female ruler of the fiercely patriarchal and male-dominated North if she were to succeed Kim Jong-un as the Supreme Leader.
As reported by Forbes, forecasting the inner workings of Pyongyang's impenetrable system is a famously challenging task. When Kim Jong-il suffered an acute stroke in 2008, many outside commentators predicted that one of Kim Jong-un's two elder brothers would succeed their father. However, North Korea later identified Kim Jong-un as the next leader.
Given Kim Ju-ae's youth, experts stated it was still way too early to determine whether she would ultimately exhibit the same brutal characteristics of leadership as her father did when he established his unquestioned power through a string of brutal elimination that included the murder of his half-brother and the capital punishment of his uncle.
Since 1999, elections have taken place in North Korea; nevertheless, the leader of the nation is chosen through congressional elections rather than municipal ones. Since 1948, when Kim Il-sun, Kim Jong-un's grandfather, was appointed North Korea's first supreme leader, the Kim family has dominated the nation under absolute dictatorship.
Meanwhile, on January 5, 2024, North Korea fired 200 artillery shells on the South Korean islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong. The most recent event happened months after the North completely halted a military agreement with the South that was supposed to strengthen ties.
After Pyongyang said in November 2023 that it had successfully launched a spy satellite into orbit, the agreement began to fall apart.
As a result, South Korea declared it would begin border surveillance flights and partially suspended the pact.
