Kim Jong Un Keeps It In Family With 13-Year-Old Heir, Spies Say

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has named his teenage daughter, Kim Ju Ae, as his successor, the BBC reported on Thursday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS), South Korea’s chief intelligence agency, said several factors were considered in making the observation, “including her increasingly prominent public presence at official events,” according to the outlet. Ju Ae is believed to be 13 years old.

Lee Seong-kwen, a South Korean lawmaker and member of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, told the BBC that Ju Ae has now “entered the stage” of being designated Jong Un’s successor.

“As Kim Ju Ae has shown her presence at various events, including the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army and her visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, and signs have been detected of her voicing her opinion on certain state policies,” Lee told the BBC, “the NIS believes she has now entered the stage of being designated as successor.”

Ju Ae’s name was first made public by American basketball player Dennis Rodman, who told The Guardian after 2013 North Korea trip that he “held their baby Ju-ae,” calling Jong Un a “good dad” with “a beautiful family.” She first appeared publicly in 2022, inspecting ballistic missile launches alongside her father, and was first seen outside North Korea in 2025 at a World War II monument in Beijing, China.

Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, are believed to have three children together, including Ju Ae, a son supposedly born in 2010 and a third child in 2017.

The dictator succeeded his father Kim Jong Il, shortly after the elder Kim died in 2011. Kim Jong Il succeeded his father — Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea — who died in 1994.