By Kyu-seok Shim<\/p>\n
SEOUL, April 6 (Reuters) – South Korea’s spy agency now believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s teenage daughter has been positioned as his successor, lawmakers \u200csaid on Monday, citing a recent public display of her driving a tank that \u200cwas likely intended to dispel any doubts.<\/p>\n
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers its assessment was not based on circumstantial inference \u200bbut on what it described as “credible intelligence” collected by the agency, according to briefings by ruling and opposition party members after a closed-door parliamentary meeting.<\/p>\n
The NIS said the imagery of the daughter driving a tank was intended to highlight her supposed military aptitude and dispel doubts over a female heir, \u200clawmakers said.<\/p>\n
North Korea’s state\u2011run media KCNA \u2060last month published photos of Kim and his daughter driving a new tank, following earlier images showing her firing a rifle at a shooting range \u2060and using a handgun.<\/p>\n
Such scenes are intended to pay “homage” to Kim’s own public military appearances during the early 2010s when he was being prepared to succeed his own father, ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Park \u200bSun-won said.<\/p>\n
The \u200blatest assessment of Kim’s daughter, who is believed to \u200bbe around 13 and to be \u200cnamed Ju Ae, is a progression from earlier analysis by the spy agency which said she was likely being groomed to succeed her father.<\/p>\n
Ju Ae’s repeated presence at defence\u2011related events is aimed at easing doubts over a female successor and accelerating the construction of a succession narrative, the lawmakers said, citing the NIS.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers have previously said the agency believes her increasingly prominent role suggests she \u200cis already being treated as the de facto second\u2011highest \u200bfigure in the North\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
People Power Party lawmaker Lee \u200bSeong-kweun said the NIS noted that suggestions \u200bKim’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong might be unhappy about the focus \u200con Ju Ae were misplaced, as Kim Yo \u200bJong does not hold \u200bindependent power.<\/p>\n
Some North Korea experts, however, urged caution in interpreting the images as definitive succession signals.<\/p>\n
Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said Ju Ae’s \u200btank appearance alone was insufficient to \u200cconclude she had been confirmed as Kim’s heir, noting she appeared alongside her \u200bfather rather than independently, unlike Kim Jong Un’s own solo military appearances during his \u200bgrooming phase.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Kyu-seok ShimEditing by Ed Davies)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Kyu-seok Shim SEOUL, April 6 (Reuters) – South Korea’s spy agency now believes North Korean leader Kim…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":708361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[24529,3230,295208,50,295209,24240,295211,15243,295210,103],"class_list":["post-708360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-lawmakers","tag-national-intelligence-service","tag-news","tag-nis","tag-north-korea","tag-north-korean-leader","tag-south-korea","tag-teenage-daughter","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116356963899861334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}