World News | South Korea: Kim’s daughter enjoys horseback riding, skiing

SEOUL, March 7 (AP) – South Korea’s intelligence agency told lawmakers Tuesday that the recently announced daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is being home-schooled and spends her free time riding horses, skiing and swimming.

Since November, Kim Jong-un has taken his daughter to a series of public events, including a missile launch site, sparking intense debate about the 10-year-old, reportedly Kim Ju Ae Whether the girl will be his successor.

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The South Korean government has assessed that Kim Jong-un, 39, has not named her as his successor. But it said he may have intended to use his daughter’s appearance to show his people that one of his children would one day inherit his power, in what would be the country’s third hereditary power transfer.

In a closed-door meeting of a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, the NIS maintained that assessment, saying Kim was still too young and too healthy to name his successor, according to Yoo Sang-beom, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting.

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The NIS said the daughter’s unveiling appeared to be mainly to emphasize the need for another hereditary power succession, Yoo told reporters.

Yoo said NIS told lawmakers that Kim Ju Ae was never registered with an official educational institution but attended school in Pyongyang. He quoted the NIS as saying her hobbies were horseback riding, skiing and swimming.

The lawmaker said the NIS said it had information that Kim Joo-ae was “very good at riding a horse,” and that Kim Jong-un was satisfied.

Last month, Kim Jong-un and his daughter took center stage at a military parade in Pyongyang, where a guard of honor cavalry trotted across the square on white horses – a symbol of the Kim family’s dynastic rule.

North Korean state television described one of the animals as Kim Joo-ae’s “favorite”.

The NIS also stated that Kim Joo-ae has an older brother and a younger sibling, whose gender is unknown. It said reports that Kim’s first child, a son, had mental or physical problems had not been confirmed, according to the lawmaker.

Kim Joo-ae is almost certain to be her father’s successor, some experts said, as state media dubs her as Kim Jong-un’s “most beloved” or “most respected” child and publishes pictures of her intimate with him.

But others disagree, citing Kim’s relative youth and the North’s extremely male-dominated power hierarchy.

Since its founding in 1948, North Korea has been ruled successively by male members of the Kim family: Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, and his grandfather, the nation’s founder, Kim Il Sung.

Ju Ae’s name matches what retired NBA star Dennis Rodman called Kim’s youngest daughter, whom he said he saw and held during a trip to Pyongyang in 2013.

NIS has a spotty record in confirming mysterious northern developments. It regularly releases its findings on North Korea through parliamentary committee meetings.

Meeting with reporters alongside Yoo, Congressman Youn Kun-young cited the NIS as saying that it was difficult to estimate the exact number of North Koreans who have recently died from growing food shortages. He said the NIS told lawmakers that starvation-related deaths in North Korea were not serious enough to threaten the North Korean system.

North Korea’s food situation is the worst under Kim Jong Il’s 11-year rule, experts say, but see no signs of imminent famine or mass death.

NIS assesses the North’s food problems attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, its agricultural policies and food distribution issues. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)