A teenage girl will become the next leader of North Korea, with Kim Jong Un set to confirm his daughter as successor, spy chiefs believe.
The announcement could come at party congress, the country’s largest political gathering, which is set to be held later this month after a five-year hiatus.
Ahead of the conference, Mr Kim seems to be taking steps to consolidate his daughter’s position as successor, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency (NIS).
Believed to be named Kim Ju Ae, the girl has become increasingly prominent in North Korean propaganda and even seems to have an input on policy, the NIS said.
Intelligence officials briefed members of the South Korean parliament on the child’s evolving status in a closed-door session this week.
Lee Seong-kweun of the People Power Party said: “In the past, the NIS described Kim Ju Ae as being ‘in study as successor’.
“But today the expression used was that she ‘was in the stage of being internally appointed successor’.”
Park Sun-won of the Democratic Party said the girl was already being treated as the second-in-command, pointing to her public profile.
He said the NIS would closely monitor whether she attends this month’s congress, where the regime will set out its major policy goals for the coming years.
Kim Ju Ae first stepped on to the public stage when she attended a missile launch with her father in November 2022.
South Korean officials were initially sceptical about her status as successor, given North Korea’s conservative, patriarchal culture.
But recent appearances have forced a reassessment, with the girl accompanying her father to a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last year.
She was also photographed with her parents at Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the embalmed bodies of her grandfather and great-grandfather are displayed.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute, said the girl could be appointed first secretary of the ruling party at congress.
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But Koh Yu-hwan, former president of South Korea’s Institute of National Unification, said her elevation could be signalled more subtly.
For example, he said it might be claimed that North Korea had survived thanks to “successful inheritance of the revolution”.
“If you see comments like that, it would be reasonable to think that Ju Ae has been cemented,” he said.
