'Like gods reigning over humans': Many defectors see daughter of North Korea's Kim as heir apparent

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Little is known about her except that she's reportedly about 13 and named Kim Ju Ae, but Korea's spy agency says she's likely her father's heir.

FILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, center, and his daughter, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae, visit a military training base in North Korea, Thursday, March 19, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. 朝鮮通信社/KCNA via KNS via AP hide caption

SEOUL, South Korea — Until she fled North Korea three years ago, Kim Yumi felt deeply frustrated whenever state TV showed leader Kim Jong Un with his young daughter. The message, she felt, was clear and worrying: North Korea was laying the groundwork for an eventual hereditary transfer of power, this time to Kim's daughter.

Publicly questioning the Kim dynasty's hold on power would mean severe persecution. Already angered by draconian pandemic regulations that ruined her family's fishing business, she defected to South Korea by boat with her family.

"My husband and I didn't want our children to live under a fourth-generation dictatorship. As parents, we thought the best thing we could do for our children was to give them freedom," said Kim Yumi, 32, who now lives in Seoul.

North Korea allows no dissent and harshly punishes attempts to flee the country. Established in 1948, the nation is nominally a socialist republic, but in reality it is an authoritarian dynasty, with three generations of the Kim family ruling in succession. There was no known public resistance during its previous two successions — from state founder Kim Il Sung to his son Kim Jong Il in 1994 and then from Kim Jong Il to his son Kim Jong Un in 2011.

Kim Jong Un's repeated public appearances with his daughter over the past four years have led to speculation that she's being groomed as her father's heir.

The question of who will become North Korea's next leader is crucial because that person will face a huge challenge — governing an impoverished…

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