South Korean Intelligence Service Suggests North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un Is Grooming His Daughter To Succeed Him

She’s probably just entering her teens. She’s still not been mentioned by name in the North Korean state press, and she’s not been heard uttering a word in public. Still, the girl who’s so often seen at the side of her father, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, is his likely heir, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.Her father may confirm she’s first in line at the upcoming convention of the Workers’ Party, of which Mr. Kim is general secretary, the service says.How can the NIS be sure? “Signs have been detected of her voicing her opinion on certain state policies,” according to a member of South Korea’s national assembly, Lee Seong-hwang, briefing Korean reporters on the remarks of an NIS official in a closed-door hearing. “The NIS believes she has now entered the stage of being designated as successor.”As evidence, according to the NIS as reported by Seoul’s Yonhap News, “Kim Ju-ae has shown her presence at various events, including the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army.” She also visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the mausoleum of Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, installed by the Soviet Union as founder of the North Korean regime after World War II, and his son, Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011.Yonhap quoted Mr. Lee as saying the latest assessment “marked a step forward from the agency’s previous views when it described Ju-ae as being ‘trained’ to become a successor, to now assessing her as being at the stage of ‘successor designation.’” The NIS “also said it will keep close tabs on whether she attends the North’s key party congress late this month.,” according to Yonhap.Otherwise, the hard evidence is sketchy. “I remain skeptical of her succession,” a long-time observer of the ins and outs of North Korea’s power struggle, David Maxwell, a retired special forces colonel, tells the Sun.How indeed can the NIS be all that certain when there’s not been an official report of her name? The source for calling her “Ju-ae” is the old-time Chicago Bulls basketball star, Dennis Rodman, who said he held baby Ju-ae in his arms when he visited North Korea as Mr. Kim’s guest in 2013. Ju-ae should be 12 or 13, to judge by official images of her at her father’s side beginning in 2022.She was shown on that occasion holding Daddy’s hand at the launch of an intercontinental missile. Since then she’s been at parades and other missile launches, but it was in September, just five months ago, that her position as heir to the throne became still more credible. It was then that she showed up with her father after getting off the armored train that carried them to Beijing to meet China’s president, Xi Jinping.Since then she’s been seen at her father’s side inspecting an enormous missile and grasping his hand as they strolled along a beach at the east coast city of Wonson near one of his palaces. She has not been seen with her mother, Ri Sol-ju, who appears only occasionally at official functions. Nor is there any mention of her siblings, believed to be one older brother and an older brother or sister.And what about Mr. Kim’s often outspoken younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, who was sometimes mentioned as a possible successor until Ju-ae started showing up at her father’s side? Would Yo-jong be happy about Ju-ae — or view her as a rival?“Whether or not she’s his designated successor, obviously she’s not of an age where she can rule on her own,” Colonel Maxwell says. “In the meantime, let’s give some thought to our course of action if we learn today that Kim Jong Un has died. What do we do then?”That’s a question to which no one has the answer. In the power vacuum that would ensue Mr. Kim’s death, North Korea could still be left without a real leader.

South Korean Intelligence Service Suggests North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un Is Grooming His Daughter To Succeed Him

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