South Korea’s spy agency monitoring whether girl, believed to be 13, will appear at political conference this month
South Korea’s spy agency has told lawmakers it believes the teenage daughter of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, is close to being designated as the country’s future leader, as Kim moves to extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation.
The assessment by the national intelligence service (NIS) comes as North Korea is preparing to hold its biggest political conference later this month, where Kim is expected to outline his main policy goals for the next five years and take steps to tighten his authoritarian grip.
In a closed-door briefing, NIS officials said they were closely monitoring whether Kim’s daughter, believed to be called Kim Ju-ae and about 13 years old, would appear with him before thousands of delegates at the Workers’ party congress, said Lee Seong Kweun, a lawmaker who attended the meeting.
Ju-ae first appeared in public at a long-range missile test in November 2022 and has since accompanied her father to an increasing number of events including weapons tests, military parades and factory openings. She travelled with him to Beijing last September for Kim’s first summit with Xi Jinping in six years, on the sidelines of a second world war memorial event.
