S. Korea says succession by N. Korean leader's daughter cannot be ruled out

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends a ceremony alongside his daughter, believed to be named Ju-ae, to mark the completion of the Kangdong Greenhouse Farm in a Pyongyang suburb, March 15. Yonhap

The unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said Monday there is a possibility that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's daughter could become his successor in what could mark the third hereditary power succession.

The ministry made the assessment, noting a change in the expression the North's state media used to refer to the teenager believed to be named Ju-ae.

In a Saturday report on Kim Jong-un's visit to a newly built greenhouse farm with Ju-ae on Friday, the North's Korean Central News Agency used the rare expression of "the great persons of guidance" in an apparent reference to the North Korean leader and his daughter.

The expression of guidance has been reserved to refer to the North's supreme leader or its ruling Workers' Party, according to the ministry.

"Given the level of protocol and the expression shown in North Korea's official media, the possibility of Kim Ju-ae's succession cannot be ruled out," ministry spokesperson Koo Byoung-sam told reporters in a regular press briefing.

Ju-ae, believed to be born in 2013, has gained the spotlight since Nov. 18, 2022, when her father brought her to the launch site of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile in her first public appearance.

Ju-ae's visit to the Kangdong Greenhouse Farm, built on the site of a military airfield near Pyongyang, marked her third public activity in the economy-related sector since she first made a public appearance. She mostly accompanied her father to military events.

The National Intelligence Service, South Korea's spy agency, earlier said it sees Ju-ae as Kim's "most likely successor," citing her public activities and the level of the North's respect toward her.

In December 2023, Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said the North Korean leader seems to be "in a hurry" to bring his daughter to the forefront, indicating she could be anointed to succeed her father.

Kim Jong-un took over the communist country following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011. The late Kim inherited power from his father, the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994. (Yonhap)