The designated head of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Thursday that considers the daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un the “most likely successor.”
“Based on the analysis of his public activities and the level of respect shown towards him in the North since his first public appearance, [a filha] “Kim Ju-ae appears to be the most likely successor,” Cho said during a parliamentary hearing before the committee responsible for ratifying his appointment to the NIS.
Still, Cho said that The NIS leaves open all possibilities regarding succession. of the Kim regime, since the current leader is still young – believed to be 41 years old – and does not appear to have any serious health problems, with many other variables including the existence of more children of Kim Jong-un.
It is the first time that a representative of the South Korean secret services makes a statement of this type about the leader’s daughter, who is around 11 years old and who made her first public appearance in November 2022.
This year, various South Korean officials He highlighted the fact that his daughter mainly appeared at military eventsfrom parades to missile launches, although the theory that Kim Jong-un may have chosen to appear with his daughter to reinforce the image of a father concerned about the future from the country.
Likewise, it was also hypothesized that, given the country’s strong patriarchal tradition, the possible future heir could be a male brother, although the number of Kim’s children or their sex is not known with certainty.
Cho himself stated today that he believes that Kim has another descendant, who could be male, in statements that contradict the previous NIS analysis, according to which the North Korean leader has three children, the eldest of whom is a boy.
The opacity that surrounds the country and the regime makes it impossible to know many details of what is happening in North Korea.
Kim Jong-un became the third member of the family to come to power, after succeeding his father, Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011 and who, in turn, succeeded Kim Il-sung, founder of the country, died in 1994, after 36 years in power.
Source: TSF
