North Korea's Kim Jong Un Reportedly Set to Name 13-Year-Old Daughter as Future Leader

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is reportedly close to designating his teenage daughter as the country’s future leader this month. The assessment by South Korea’s spy agency – National Intelligence Service – comes as North Korea is preparing to hold its biggest political conference later this month, where Kim is expected to outline his major policy goals for the next five years and take steps to tighten his authoritarian grip. Kim’s daughter is believed to be named Kim Ju Ae and around 13 years old, news agency Reuters reported quoting NIS officials. Kim Ju Ae first appeared in public at a long-range missile test in November 2022. Since then, she has accompanied her father to an increasing number of events, including weapons tests, military parades and factory openings. Kim Ju Ae travelled with Kim Jong Un to Beijing last September for Kim’s first summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in six years on the sidelines of a World War II event. Speculation about her political future gained momentum last month when she joined her parents on a New Year ‘s Day visit to Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a sacred family mausoleum displaying the embalmed bodies of her late grandfather and great-grandfather, the country’s first- and second-generation leaders. This move, according to some experts, is the clearest sign yet that she’s positioned to be the heir to her 42-year-old father. “In the past, (NIS) described Kim Ju Ae as being in the midst of successor training.’ What was notable today is that they used the term successor-designate stage,’ a shift that’s quite significant,” South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting by NIS, told Reuters. The spy agency reportedly cited her growing presence at high-profile military events, her inclusion in the family visit to Kumsusan, and signs that Kim Jong Un was beginning to seek her input on certain policy matters. Despite her increased visibility, North Korea n state media have never published the name of Kim Jong Un’s daughter, only referring to her as his “respected” or “most beloved” child. The belief that she is named Kim Ju Ae is based on an account by former NBA star Dennis Rodman, in which he recalled holding Kim Jong Un’s baby daughter during a trip to Pyongyang in 2013, according to the Reuters report. South Korean intelligence officials believe she was born sometime that year, it said. Kim Jong Un and his wife are also believed to have an older son and a younger third child whose gender is unknown.