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.
Iran's Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has resigned, with Hamid Bovard, chief executive of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), ap...
The leader of Yemen's Saudi-backed government announced the beginning of a major military operation against...
A committee overseeing the Mecca defence pact between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will meet in Riyadh on Monday, 5 O...
The co-pilot of Israel bound flydubai flight attempted to carry out a “terrorist attack” with an axe during the flight, the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general said on Saturday.
Hammam al-Hammami, the Flydubai co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain of an Israel-bound flight on Wednesday in a suspected terrorist attack, was banned from flying by Oman over concerns about his radical views, U.S. media reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Two Iranian nationals have been charged in Britain with preparing a suspected terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community in northern England, police said on Friday (2 October).
Uzbekistan’s grape exports have grown rapidly. In January-August 2025, the country exported 86,200 tonnes of fresh grapes worth $78.3 million to 19 countries but can it turn these crops into a recognisable international product?
A major bridge across the Dnipro river in Kyiv was hit in a Russian air attack on Saturday, the city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko said, as strikes on the capital's infrastructure continue.
A committee overseeing the Mecca defence pact between Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will meet in Riyadh on Monday, 5 October, to discuss regional developments and the alliance’s institutionalisation, Türkiye's foreign ministry said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has appointed Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead the administration’s latest effort to shape policy on artificial intelligence (AI), according to the Wall Street Journal.
Brazilians are voting on Sunday (04 October) in the first round of a closely contested general election, following a campaign shaped by corruption scandals, economic concerns and accusations of foreign interference.
The sound of air raid sirens and explosions rang out in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Sunday (4 October) as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived for a visit to show support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid escalating Russian attacks.
An alleged 2024 rape case involving seven former members of Cornell University’s Chi Phi fraternity has been reopened after the alleged victim, known anonymously as Jane Doe in court documents, filed a civil lawsuit accusing the men of drugging and gang-raping her.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment