Until she fled North Korea by boat with her family three years ago, Kim Yumi felt deeply frustrated whenever state television broadcasted footage of leader Kim Jong Un alongside his young daughter.
The Kim Family Maintains an Authoritarian Hereditary Dynasty
North Korea is ostensibly a socialist republic established in 1948, but in practice it functions as an authoritarian dynasty governed across three successive generations of the Kim family.
Previous transitions occurred without recorded public resistance: state founder Kim Il Sung passed power to his son Kim Jong Il in 1994, and Kim Jong Il transferred authority to his son Kim Jong Un in 2011. Observers note that a hereditary power succession system has been institutionalized in the country.
Over the past four years, Kim Jong Un has repeatedly appeared in public with his daughter, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae and roughly 13 years old, sparking intense international speculation that she is being groomed as his successor.
State media have referred to her as his most beloved
and respected
child, while official imagery has highlighted her standing ahead of her father and receiving a bow from an elderly general. During a 2013 trip to Pyongyang, former NBA star Dennis Rodman was the first to reveal her identity, holding her as a baby.
South Korea’s spy agency identifies her as the likely heir to the leadership. The next leader will inherit the governance of an impoverished, nuclear-armed nation of 26 million people subject to rigid state surveillance and isolation.
Defectors Observe Protocols Suggesting Kim Ju Ae May Succeed Her Father
Interviews with nearly a dozen defectors reveal a division of opinion regarding the young girl’s prospects, though a majority believe she is being positioned to take power. Eight of the 11 defectors interviewed by the Associated Press agreed with the assessment, while the remaining three cited the nation’s deeply patriarchal structure.
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,
remarked Tae Yongho, who formerly served as a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London prior to his 2016 defection to South Korea.
Tae added that officials appear to be replicating the exact protocols previously accorded to Kim Jong Un when he accompanied his own father as heir apparent. Kang Mi-Jin, who runs a firm analyzing North Korea’s economy, reported that her contacts inside the country learned via smuggled phones that residents believe Kim Ju Ae is next in line.
Jung Gwang-il, a defector who specializes in smuggling outside information to North Korea, stated that the North Koreans he meets during visits to Chinese border towns also hold the same belief.
Patriarchal Structures and Limited Female Leadership Hinder Female Rule
Women remain heavily underrepresented in leadership, holding only one of the 17 department director positions in the ruling Workers’ Party—a post held by Kim Jong Un’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
Some older contacts inside North Korea express reluctance toward a female leader, though Ahn Chan-il, a defector and scholar who heads the World Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul, noted that North Koreans will passively accept hereditary succession as something they should go along with.
members of the Kim family
are like gods reigning over humans so gender really doesn’t matter.Lee Si-young, head of Free North Korea Radio
Kim Yumi, a defector and YouTube creator, stated that ordinary people know absolutely nothing about the private lives of the Kim family. She added that they do not really try to know about it and do not pay attention to it because doing so could put them in danger.
Whether Kim Ju Ae ultimately assumes power or another child is designated, observers agree that Kim Jong Un is likely to perpetuate family rule, facing little internal resistance from a populace conditioned by decades of single-family governance.
