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OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
7:30 PM – Thursday, February 12, 2026
North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, widely recognized as a ruthless dictator, is reportedly grooming his teenage daughter, Kim Ju Ae, to succeed him and take the helm of the isolated nation.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency (NIS) reported that the ruler is preparing his daughter, believed to be around 13 years old, to be the fourth generation in his lineage to rule North Korea. She would also be the first female to rule the communist regime.
Kim, 42, has made several public appearances alongside his young daughter, including on inspections of weapons projects and hotels, part of a propaganda campaign promoting tourism. The young heir apparent could be seen standing with her father in hotel rooms and lobbies in images released by the country’s state media.
Last month, Ju Ae joined her parents at Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a mausoleum displaying the embalmed bodies of her grandfather, Kim Jong-il, and great-grandfather, Kim Il-Sung. The latter founded the communist Workers’ Party of Korea and was installed by the Soviet Union after World War II.
The news comes as the country nears a political conference this month in which Kim plans to lay out his domestic and foreign policies for the next five years. The NIS said it would keep a close watch on whether Kim would bring his daughter to the event.
“In the past, the NIS described Kim Ju Ae as being ‘in study as successor’ but today the expression used was that she ‘was in the stage of being internally appointed successor,” South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters following a closed-door briefing from the NIS.
It’s unclear whether Kim’s selection of an heir means that he plans to step down from his position soon, despite expert predictions.
“The NIS believes the role she has taken on during public events indicates she has started to provide policy input and that she is being treated as the de facto second-highest leader,” Lee and another lawmaker, Park Sun-won, said.
Kim became the country’s third dictator upon his father’s death in 2011. President Donald Trump met with him in 2019 where he became the first U.S. President to set foot in North Korea.
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