North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter seen as future successor: spy agency

South Korea’s espionage agency, the National Intelligence Service, informed lawmakers Thursday that it thinks North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter is near to being set apart as the regime’s future leader, The Associated Press reported.

Kim is the third generation of men in his family to rule North Korea.

In a closed-door briefing, NIS officials said they are closely monitoring whether Kim’s daughter — believed to be named Kim Ju Ae and around 13 years old — appears with him before thousands of delegates at the upcoming Workers’ Party Congress, said lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting.

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This picture taken on Jan. 27, 2026, and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Jan. 28, 2026, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae (R) inspecting a test firing of the renewed large-caliber rocket launcher system, at an undisclosed location in North Korea.  (KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Images)

“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,” Lee noted, according to the outlet.

In 2023, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service indicated to lawmakers that the North Korean leader and his wife probably had an older son as well as younger, third child of unknown gender, according to The Associated Press.

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This picture taken on Jan. 27, 2026, and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Jan. 28, 2026, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae (front) inspecting a test firing of the renewed large-caliber rocket launcher system, at an undisclosed location in North Korea.  (KCNA VIA KNS / AFP via Getty Images)

North Korea is one of the world’s few nuclear-armed nations, making it a unique threat on the global stage.

A 2025 U.S. Intelligence Community Annual Threat Assessment stated that “Kim remains committed to increasing the number of North Korea’s nuclear warheads and improving its missile capabilities to threaten the Homeland and U.S. forces, citizens, and allies, and to weaken U.S. power in the AsiaPacific region, as evidenced by the pace of the North’s missile flight tests and the regime’s public touting of its uranium enrichment capabilities.”

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This picture taken on Dec. 20, 2025, and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on Dec. 23, 2025, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) and his daughter Ju Ae (L) inspecting the Milyong Hotel, which was recently completed in the Samjiyon tourist district of Ryanggang Province. (KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Images)

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“Russia is increasingly supporting North Korea’s nuclear status in exchange for Pyongyang’s support to Moscow’s war against Ukraine,” the assessment noted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report