North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's presentation of his young daughter at recent public events was likely an attempt to show his people that one of his children will one day inherit the leadership, which would be the third power transfer to a Kim family member in Pyongyang, according to South Korea's spy agency.
In the previous two months, Kim Jong Un was spotted accompanying his daughter to three events: a ballistic missile launch site, a picture session with North Korean weapons scientists, and a visit to a missile storage facility.
Is Kim Jong Un Planning a Family Dynasty?
State-run media in North Korea referred to the girl as Kim's "most beloved child," raising controversy about whether she is being groomed as his heir apparent despite the fact that she is thought to be just nine or ten years old.
In a closed-door parliamentary committee meeting on Thursday, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) stated that it believed Kim wanted to demonstrate to North Koreans his resolve to hold another round of hereditary power transitions within his family by bringing his daughter to public places. Yoo Sang-bum, a lawmaker who attended the NIS briefing, told reporters.
According to Al Jazeera via MSN, Yoo said that the NIS stated that Ju Ae's public appearance with her father, the first for any of Kim's children, does not necessarily indicate that she will inherit Kim. According to South Korean news sites, Kim has three children born in 2010, 2013, and 2017; the first is a male and the third is a daughter.
Ju Ae is supposedly the toddler seen by NBA legend Dennis Rodman during his 2013 trip to Pyongyang. Rodman informed the British publication the Guardian that he and Kim spent "relaxing time by the sea" with the leader's family, and that he held Kim's infant daughter Ju Ae.
Kim Jong Un, who turns 39 on Sunday, is the third generation of his family to control North Korea since its founding in 1948. Upon the demise of his father Kim Jong Il in December 2011, he inherited authority. Kim Jong Il took over after the death of his father, the nation's founder, Kim Il Sung, in 1994.
Kim Jong Un Regime
Longtime North Korean observers were stunned by the sight of young Ju Ae; both Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Il made their official debuts as adults. In 2010, Kim Jong Il designated his third and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, then 26 years old, as his successor by appointing him to a number of high-ranking positions.
Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Il's eldest son, and Kim Jong Un's half-brother was formerly considered a prospective heir to the country's dynastic rule until 2001 when he was arrested trying to enter Japan on a forged passport to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Kim Jong Nam was murdered in 2017 at a Malaysian airport by two Asian women who applied the deadly nerve toxin VX to his face. The South Korean intelligence agency blamed Kim Jong Un's administration for the strike, as per LA Times.
Former North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, who was involved in now-defunct nuclear talks with the United States, was purged, according to Youn Kun-young, another lawmaker in attendance at Thursday's briefing.
If confirmed, this would be the most prominent North Korean coup in recent years. In an apparent effort to consolidate his authority during his previous tenure, Kim Jong Un orchestrated a series of killings, purges, and dismissals of prominent officials, including the murder of his influential uncle.
The South Korean intelligence service has a patchy track record of monitoring North Korean events. Often, it is hard to authenticate information concerning the secretive, autocratic state.
The Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun stated earlier this week that Ri was likely killed in 2022. According to the report, which cites anonymous sources knowledgeable with North Korean internal affairs, four to five more individuals with links to the North's Foreign Ministry were also executed. It stated that the motives for the executions were unknown.
In 2019, it was revealed that Kim Jong Un used these tactics on up to seventy alleged opponents of his diplomatic push to the United States and South Korea.
Ri Pyong-Chol, one of his key advisors, was stripped of his military rank and demoted to a subordinate position following an unnamed "severe event" last year. Per The Sun, it is unknown if he has returned to the top of the tanks, although he participated in the Korean People's Army's 90th-anniversary festivities in April of this year.
