North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has chosen his teenage daughter as his successor, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday.
The assessment was delivered in a closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service, which said Kim Ju Ae has entered what it described as a “successor-designate stage”. According to lawmaker Lee Seong-kwen, the agency had previously said she was receiving “successor training”, but now believes she is being formally positioned as heir.
South Korean officials believe Kim Ju Ae was born in 2013. She first appeared in North Korean state media in November 2022, when she attended a long-range missile test with her father. Since then, she has joined him at an increasing number of high-profile events, including military parades, weapons inspections and visits to factories.
In 2025, she travelled with him to Beijing for his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, marking her first known trip abroad. She also joined her parents on a New Year visit to Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a mausoleum housing the embalmed bodies of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung.
The intelligence agency said it would be watching closely to see whether she appears at the upcoming Workers’ Party Congress. The congress, North Korea’s largest political gathering, takes place every five years. Kim Jong Un is expected to outline his priorities for the next five years at the event.
North Korean state media have never published her name, referring to her only as Kim Jong Un’s “respected” or “most beloved” child.
The name Kim Ju Ae is based on comments made in 2013 by former basketball player Dennis Rodman, who said he had met Kim’s daughter during a visit to Pyongyang.
South Korean officials have previously told lawmakers that Kim Jong Un is believed to have other children, including a son who has never appeared in public.
Pyongyang has not made any formal announcement about who will succeed him.
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