South Korea’s ex-spy chief dismisses report Kim Jong-un’s daughter Ju-ae will be successor

A former South Korean spymaster has disputed an intelligence report suggesting that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s 12-year-old daughter is being groomed to be his successor, with analysts agreeing it would contradict the secrecy of past successions and the patriarchal structure of the regime.

Park Jie-won, a lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea who headed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) from 2020 to 2022, dismissed a recent claim by the country’s spy agency that Kim Ju-ae is being trained to inherit her father’s position.

“I don’t believe Ju-ae is being prepared as the successor,” Park said during an SBS radio news talk show on Tuesday. “Never before has a socialist country like North Korea put up a daughter, a woman, as its leader.”

Park revealed that US and South Korean intelligence agencies have gathered information indicating that Ju-ae has an older brother and a younger sibling of unconfirmed gender. “I suspect his existence is kept secret as he is studying abroad,” Park said.

He drew parallels to the past, noting that when Kim Jong-un and his sister Kim Yo-jong were studying in Geneva as teenagers, their identities were completely concealed from the outside world for their safety.