On Monday, Seoul’s Unification Ministry added to the mounting speculation about Kim Jong Un‘s succession plans, stating they had not “ruled out” the possibility of his daughter being North Korea’s next leader, and it could be Ju Ae.
On Saturday, Pyongyang official media referred to Kim’s teenage daughter as a “great person of guidance” — “hyangdo” in Korean — a word traditionally reserved only for senior leaders and their successors.
Analysts claimed it was the first time the North had detailed Kim’s daughter, who had never been named by Pyongyang but was identified as Ju Ae by South Korean intelligence.
Who is Ju Ae?
It has redoubled suspicion that the teen, who frequently appears close to her father at crucial public events, may have been chosen as the next leader of the nuclear-armed North, for a third hereditary succession.
“Usually the term ‘hyangdo’ is only used to refer to the highest-ranking official,” Koo Byoung-sam, a spokesman for Seoul’s Unification Ministry, said at a briefing Monday.
“We are not ruling out the possibility of Ju Ae’s succession”, he said, adding that Seoul was “monitoring the situation and remaining open to possibilities.”
However, he warned that if Ju Ae succeeds her father as the reclusive state’s fourth leader, “North Koreans will bear the brunt of the fallout,” he said.
Ju Ae was initially revealed to the public by state media in 2022 when she went with her father to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Since then, the North’s official channels have referred to her in a variety of ways, including “morning star of Korea” and “beloved child.”
She has been observed at a number of her father’s official events, including military maneuvers, a visit to a weapons facility, and a stop at a new poultry farm.
Ju Ae spotted with binoculars at paratroop drills
Pyongyang posted a North photograph on Saturday showing Ju Ae using binoculars to view recent paratroop drills while standing by her father and other military leaders.
Before 2022, the sole proof of her existence came from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who visited the North in 2013 and claimed to have met Kim’s young daughter, Ju Ae.
Seoul had previously stated that Kim and his wife Ri had their first child, a male, in 2010, and Ju Ae was their second child.
However, last year, Seoul’s unification minister stated that the government was “unable to confirm for sure” the existence of Kim’s son.
Kim Jong Un took over the regime when his father died in late 2011, and he oversaw four nuclear tests, the most recent of which was performed in 2017.