OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:27 PM – Monday, July 29, 2024
Amid North Korean worries regarding their leader’s health issues and weight, Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, is allegedly being prepared to be the North Korean leader’s successor, according to Seoul’s spy agency.
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The intelligence committee of the South Korean parliament was informed that succession planning was underway during a briefing on the Pyongyang regime by the National Intelligence Service.
The committee secretary, Lee Seong-kwon, stated that this “hints at Kim Ju-ae being a likely successor.”
“Conscious of the [North Korean] public’s reaction to the young Kim Ju-ae, the levels of propaganda and the frequency of exposure to the outside world are being adjusted while undisclosed activities [successor training] are being simultaneously carried out,” Lee said.
Ju-ae, who is believed to be somewhere between 10 to 12-years-old, made her public debut during a missile launch in November 2022. Since then, she has been spotted going to ceremonies and events with her father.
She was first described as Kim’s “beloved” daughter in state media. When that word was changed to “respected,” which is how her father was described in 2023 on a garden tour in Kangdong County, the Kims’ summer hideaway, it fueled rumors that she was getting ready to someday take over the reins.
Although they have never been spotted in public, Ju-ae is also reportedly believed to have an older brother and a younger sibling as well.
“Kim Jong-un is extremely obese, weighing 140kg (308 pounds) and having a body mass index in the mid-40s, far exceeding the healthy maximum of 25, and is considered to be in a high-risk group for heart disease,” Lee said.
“We understand that he has been showing symptoms of high blood pressure and diabetes since his early thirties, and if he does not improve his current health condition, there is a strong possibility that he may develop cardiovascular disease, of which there is a family history,” he continued.
Additionally, he said that the wording surrounding Ju-ae in North Korean state media indicates that a “successor structure is solidifying.” Park noted the use of terms like “hyangdo,” or “direction,” which he says indicates an individual with a future path to leadership, since they are terms typically reserved for heirs or leaders.
Nevertheless, the Seoul spy agency had not yet “ruled out the possibility of another sibling stepping forward or the possibility of some other change, based on the fact that the successor has not been finalized,” Lee highlighted.
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