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Before fleeing North Korea three years ago, Kim Yumi felt deeply worried when state television showed leader Kim Jong Un alongside his young daughter. She sensed the broadcasts signaled preparations for a fourth-generation hereditary transfer of power in the authoritarian nation.
Most Defectors Believe the Girl Is Kim’s Heir
The question of North Korea’s next leader is critical because that individual will govern an impoverished, nuclear-armed country of 26 million citizens living under strict state surveillance. While North Koreans have no voice in choosing their leaders, analysts and defectors note they will likely accept another dynastic succession publicly.
To understand private perspectives inside the isolated nation, The Associated Press interviewed nearly a dozen defectors with active contacts in North Korea or firsthand experience of past successions, alongside several experts.
Although little information exists about Kim’s daughter aside from reports naming her Kim Ju Ae and placing her age at roughly 13, she has made numerous public appearances since late 2022 alongside her father at major military events. State media has described her as Kim’s “most beloved” and “respected” child, with imagery showing an elderly general kneeling before her.
South Korea’s intelligence agency views her as the probable heir, a stance shared by eight of the 11 defectors interviewed by the AP, while others doubted the assessment due to the country’s patriarchal traditions.
“During her visits to missile launch sites and factories, the way senior North Korean officials treat Kim Ju Ae involves protocols reserved for a successor, not the ones simply for a daughter of Kim Jong Un,” stated Tae Yongho, a former minister at North Korea’s Embassy in London who defected in 2016. “They are repeating the same protocol and treatment they provided for Kim Jong Un,” when he accompanied his father as his heir.
Kang Mi-Jin, a defector running an economy-focused analysis company, reported that contacts inside North Korea informed her via smuggled phones that they expect Kim Ju Ae to succeed her father. Jung Gwang-il, a defector who smuggles outside information, noted that North Koreans he encounters in Chinese border towns share this perspective.
Doubts Remain About a Woman Becoming Leader
Skepticism surrounding Kim Ju Ae primarily centers on her gender, as South Korean officials believe Kim has an unconfirmed younger sibling. Women remain severely underrepresented in high-ranking North Korean positions, with only one female department director among 17 within the ruling Workers’ Party, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry.
“My contacts in North Korea say it would be nonsensical to revere that little girl as their supreme leader,” said Kim Jeong-Ah, a former North Korean army officer who resettled in South Korea in 2009.
Conversely, Lee Si-young, a defector heading Free North Korea Radio in Seoul, explained that while some older contacts dislike the idea of a female leader, members of the Kim family “are like gods reigning over humans so gender really doesn’t matter.”
Kim’s Push for Hereditary Power Faces Little Resistance
Regardless of whether the girl ultimately succeeds him, observers agree that 42-year-old Kim Jong Un will likely designate one of his children to maintain family rule without facing domestic resistance. South Korea’s spy agency recently noted that Kim is extremely obese with a high cardiovascular risk but displays no other health issues.
North Koreans will passively “accept a hereditary succession as something that they should go along with,” explained Ahn Chan-il, a defector and scholar leading the World Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul.
“A hereditary power succession system has been institutionalized in North Korea, just like presidential elections in our system,” said Oh Gyeong-seob, an analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification. “North Korea’s ruling elite accepts it as a matter of course. So do its general citizens.”
Choi Song-juk, who fled North Korea in 2015, admitted she was previously brainwashed and accepted the two earlier successions without complaint, though she now calls them “nonsense.” Defector Jeon Jae-hyun added that pervasive government surveillance prevents people from voicing discontent and ensures political loyalty.
Kim Yumi recalled that she had no knowledge of the girl until Kim Jong Un formally introduced her at a long-range missile launch site in November 2022.
“Ordinary people know absolutely nothing about private lives of the Kim family,” said Kim Yumi, who currently manages a YouTube channel dedicated to North Korea. “They don’t really try to know about it and don’t pay attention to it because doing so could put them in danger.”
