She’s daddy’s little dictator.
Kim Jong Un is said to be positioning his mysterious daughter — believed to be 13-year-old Kim Ju — as his successor, according to South Korea’s spy agency, National Intelligence Service (NIS).
It would be a stunning development in North Korea’s rigidly male-dominated dynasty, but experts say that just because she’s a young girl doesn’t mean she would be a more gentle leader.
“I imagine that Kim Jong Un would want her to rule in the same way he does,” Joseph Bermudez Jr., a senior fellow at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told The Post. He said that Ju Ae would be under immense pressure — and probably naturally inclined — to follow in her father’s footsteps if she succeeds him.
NIS made the assessment that she’s her father’s likely successor after monitoring the schoolgirl’s increased prominent presence at official events with her father, even though he is believed to have a firstborn son.
If true, it signals the biggest shake-up in the nation’s ruling Kim family since the chubby-cheeked strongman himself inherited the nuclear-armed throne from his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011.
From secret child to state spotlight
Until recently, Kim Ju Ae’s very existence was one of Pyongyang’s best-kept secrets.
The world first caught a glimpse of her in November 2022, when she appeared at an intercontinental ballistic missile launch, bundled in a white puffer coat and holding her father’s hand as they inspected a hulking Hwasong-17 rocket.
State media called her his “respected” or “most beloved daughter” — but never referred to her by name. Western outlets believe her name to be Kim Ju Ae after US basketball star Dennis Rodman visited Jong Un in Pyongyang in 2013. He told The Guardian, “I held their baby Ju Ae and spoke with (Kim’s wife) as well.”
Over the years, she’s appeared at military parades, weapons tests, banquets with generals and even formal state events — often positioned front and center, flanked by top brass. In a country where symbolism is everything, her prominence is no accident, according to several experts.
Bermudez said the young girl’s increasing appearances at events and state-run media’s treatment of her suggest she is being primed to succeed her father.
“But just because she might be officially named in the near future as successor designate doesn’t mean that can’t change quite easily,” he told The Post. “She would need the support of internal security forces, the defense command and intelligence community to maintain power and enforce their rule.”
If she does succeed her father, she might initially follow his path but then change course, just as he did.
“Kim himself changed dramatically. He followed in his fathers footsteps,” Bermudez noted. “There was a succession plan book when his father died where everyone knew what was going to happen at least a year out — and he followed that diligently. Then he started moving from that and had his own uncle brutally executed.”
On Thursday, NIS told lawmakers in Seoul it believes that Ju Ae — the daughter of Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol Ju — is close to being designated as the country’s future leader as her father moves to extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation.
“As Kim Ju Ae has shown her presence at various events, including the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army and her visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, and signs have been detected of her voicing her opinion on certain state policies, the NIS believes she has now entered the stage of being designated as successor,” lawmaker Lee Seong-kwen told reporters.
The assessment comes as North Korea is preparing to hold its biggest political conference later this month. There, Jong Un is expected to outline his major policy goals for the next five years and take steps to tighten his authoritarian grip, according to the AP.
Breaking the Boys’ Club
The Kim dynasty has ruled North Korea — a hereditary dictatorship — since 1948, beginning with Kim Il Sung, followed by his son Kim Jong Il in 1994, and then Kim Jong Un. The regime’s mythology is steeped in propaganda — military might, paternal leadership and “Paektu bloodline” purity.
A teenage girl ascending to the top would shatter decades of tradition.
But analysts caution that North Korea’s ideology ultimately centers on bloodline over gender. As long as Ju Ae carries the sacred Kim DNA, she could theoretically rule — even in a patriarchal society.
“Some say it’s highly unusual because its a male dominated society and that is true to a certain degree but there are a lot of powerful women in North Korea,” Bermudez told The Post.
“Right now, Kim Jong Un’s sister is a very high ranking politician, she’s gone on diplomatic missions and so forth.
“It’s bloodline that is most important in Korean culture, not gender.”
Some experts believe her growing visibility is meant to solidify internal loyalty, signaling to elites that the dynasty’s fourth generation is already being groomed.
Softer rule — or the same iron fist?
The big question many people are asking is whether Ju Ae would be different to her father and usher in a kinder, gentler North Korea.
History offers scant comfort. Jong Un himself was educated in Switzerland and once rumored to love basketball and Western pop culture. Yet he has overseen nuclear expansion, ballistic missile tests and a crackdown on dissent.
If Ju Ae does take the reins one day, she will likely be molded in the same image: defender of the nuclear arsenal, supreme commander of the armed forces and guardian of the Kim dynasty’s survival at all costs, Bermudez predicts.
“No one really knows what kind of leader she’d be because western society has never actually spoken to her or heard from her — not even the CIA or NIS,” he said.
The succession gamble
There is historical precedent for Kim to identify his successor early on because that’s what his father, Kim Jong Il, did with him.
Of course, North Korea is notoriously opaque. Jong Un is believed to be in his early 40s, and there’s no public indication of an imminent transition. He may have other children, including possible sons, but no outsider has reported ever having seen any.
The first of Jong Un’s two other presumed children is said to be a son born in 2010, but he has never been publicly acknowledged by the family, and the third was born in February 2017, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing South Korean media outlets and intelligence officials. The Associated Press notes that some reports say his third child is a daughter.
Some analysts suggest Ju Ae’s rise could also be a strategic move — a way to project stability amid international sanctions, economic hardship and deepening ties with Russia and China.
Other analysts question whether she would receive such a high-profile post or any formal party role, given that party rules require members to be at least 18.
Still, her carefully choreographed appearances — saluting generals, applauding missile launches, walking red carpets of soldiers — hint at a long game.
“In Korean culture, as in many Asian cultures, you can have power and influence at a very young age merely because of your family,” Bermudez said. “The closer you are to the king or president the more powerful you are.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
