North Korean ruling party magazine raises Kim’s successor debate: Report

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – A ruling party magazine in North Korea has initiated debate on a successor to the nation’s leader Kim Jong Un, a media report claimed Thursday.

The issue of Kim’s successor was published last year in March, Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported, after it “obtained” the publication.

The issue assumes significance as Kim, whose age is said to be 42, is frequently seen with his daughter at public events.

The South Korean media suggests her name is Ju Ae, who is believed to have been born around 2012.

According to the report, “Geunroja,” or “workers,” a magazine published for officials of the Workers' Party of Korea, raised the “issue of designating a successor to inherit the status and role of the political head and establishing (the designee’s) leadership.”

The magazine described the issue as “central to handling the country's leadership succession.”

There was no mention of Ju Ae in the said article.

“Designating a successor in line with the people's respect and trust, and the collective will of the party as well as establishing the successor's leadership while the state head is alive” were listed as central to addressing the succession issue, the Yonhap News Agency report added.

Pyongyang has not publicly discussed the successor of the country’s incumbent leader, who is a third-generation ruler from the Kim family.

Kim took power in 2011 after his father and North Korea’s second leader, Kim Jong Il, died.

The incumbent’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, is the founding leader of the North Korean state, who ruled until 1994 after the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945.