There is movement in the Hermit Kingdom, and it has everything to do with bloodlines.
For years, analysts have speculated about who will succeed Kim Jong Un as North Korea’s supreme leader. Some pointed to his sister, Kim Yo Jong, who has been increasingly visible and politically active. Others floated the possibility of a half brother stepping into the spotlight. But now South Korea’s National Intelligence Service believes the likely successor is someone else entirely, his 13 year old daughter, widely believed to be named Kim Ju Ae.
According to the Associated Press, South Korean intelligence officials told lawmakers they believe Kim Jong Un is positioning his teenage daughter as the future leader, extending the dynasty into a fourth generation. That is not a minor development. North Korea has operated as a family run regime since its founding, but the optics of grooming a middle school aged girl for eventual control of a nuclear armed state is something else.
Kim Ju Ae first appeared publicly in November 2022 at a long range missile test. Since then, she has accompanied her father to military parades, weapons tests, factory openings, and even a summit in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. That is not accidental. In authoritarian regimes, public appearances are choreographed down to the smallest detail.
Last month, she joined her parents on a New Year’s Day visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, where the embalmed bodies of her grandfather Kim Jong Il and great grandfather Kim Il Sung are displayed. In North Korea, symbolism is policy. Standing beside the preserved bodies of the regime’s founding figures is not just a family outing. It is a message.
South Korean officials initially doubted that a young girl would be chosen, given the country’s deeply conservative and male dominated leadership tradition. But her increasing prominence has forced a reassessment.
The Diplomat offered an important perspective. In North Korea, bloodline is the fastest way to signal continuity when power shifts. Even if a successor is not formally installed right away, having a recognizable Kim family figure in place helps hold the elite together. In that sense, Kim Ju Ae may function less as a fully trained ruler in waiting and more as a reserve source of legitimacy.
That is how dynastic systems often work, even ones that claim revolutionary or republican roots. They avoid openly declaring monarchy while quietly managing succession through family ties.
The bigger question is stability. A regime built on a single family line is always vulnerable to internal power struggles. If Kim Jong Un is indeed grooming his daughter, he is sending a signal to generals and party officials alike, the Kim system is not going anywhere.
In North Korea, ideology matters. But bloodline matters more.
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