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A new book claims North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un was designated as his father’s successor at age 8, nine years earlier than most experts and observers previously thought.
The book, “What we don’t know about Kim Jong Un: His politics and strategy,” draws heavily from testimonies from the leader’s maternal aunt, Ko Yong Suk, and uncle Ri Gang, who once lived across the street from Kim Jong Un’s late father and predecessor Kim Jong Il.
At a press conference about the book’s publication, author Cheong Seong-chang, who is a director at the Center for Korean Peninsula Strategy at the South Korea-based Sejong Institute, said that Kim Jong Il may have designated his youngest son as successor as early as 1992.
“According to Ko Yong Suk and Ri Gang’s testimony, on Kim Jong Un’s 8th birthday in 1992, (the boy’s) praise song ‘Footsteps’ was performed in front of party officials who were key associates of Kim Jong Il,” he said. “Ri Gang personally heard Kim Jong Il say, ‘From now on, my successor is Kim Jong Un.’”
Cheong said the late “Dear Leader” took a liking to the birthday boy because he believed they shared a resemblance.
If their testimonies are true, this means Kim Jong Un is 41-years-old and was born in 1984, not 1982 as Pyongyang claims.
It also torpedoes the prevailing theory that his late older brother Kim Jong Nam-- whom he ordered assassinated in 2017 -- had been the heir apparent as late as 2001. In that year, Kim Jong Nam and his family were caught trying enter Japan on fake passports with the stated purpose of visiting Tokyo Disneyland.
Observers believed the resulting loss of face caused Kim Jong Nam to fall out of favor, but according to Cheong’s book, that decision had already been made, and most senior North Korean officials were aware that Kim Jong Un would be the country’s next leader as early as 1995.
Ko and Ri lived “right in front” of Kim Jong Il’s house, which at the time had been code-named “Residence No. 1,″ Cheong said. They were members of the “Dear Leader’s” inner circle and visited his home many times.
In 1998, they escaped from North Korea with the help of the CIA, and, according to the Washington Post, they now reside a few hours from New York City.
Other revelations
North Korea is an extremely secretive country, and closed to most outsiders, so there is always wide interested in accounts of the leaders' lives.
Ko and Ri gave their testimony to Cheong in interviews conducted in the United States in 2021.
They said that Kim Jong Un’s birthplace, which North Korea keeps a secret, was actually in a private villa in the Samsok district of Pyongyang, northeast of the capital’s downtown area.
South Korean intelligence has yet to confirm Kim’s birthplace and prevailing theories suggested was at his mother Ko Yong Hui’s personal villa in the eastern port city of Wonsan.
But Ko and Ri’s testimonies, if true, would confirm the suspicions that Kim was actually born in 1984. North Korea is believed to have altered the third-generation ruler’s birthdate so that it is easier to remember--by changing his “official” birth year to 1982, it places him roughly 70 years after the birth of his grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung, and 40 years after his father.
Kim Joo Ae, heir to the throne?
Cheong’s book also argues that Kim Jong Un’s daughter Ju Ae, born in 2013 -- whom many believe is being groomed to succeed her father -- is his firstborn.
That would contradict intelligence reports that he had a son in 2010.
Cheong also said that Kim is bringing her into the public eye at such an early age so that the people, and potential rivals, will be more used to the idea of her leading the country -- the first female after three generations of males.
This is a clear contrast to his own situation. Kim Jong Il did not publicly announce his successor until it was clear that he was in ailing health and might die soon.
Not all of the ‘Hearse Seven’ were purged?
Additionally, the book argues that it is false that Kim Jong Un purged all of the so-called “Hearse Seven” -- the senior party officials who were closest to Kim Jong Il in life who joined the heir in walking alongside the hearse at the Dear Leader’s 2011 funeral.
Cheong explained that only two of them had been purged.
Ri Yong Ho, who served as North Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2016 and 2020, was dismissed from his position, according to South Korean intelligence.
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported in 2022 that he had been executed, but in 2024, Ri Il Kyu, a diplomat who had defected to the South, told South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper that he was in prison.
The book says the other purged member of the seven was Jang Song Theak, who was Kim Jong Un’s uncle by marriage, and who was believed to be the de facto leader of the country when Kim Jong Il’s health declined.
Jang was stripped of all his titles in 2013 and executed in a move that sent a warning to any would-be challengers to Kim Jong Un’s rule and arguably cemented his legitimacy.
Cheong said that according to Japanese sources, Jang’s wife Kim Kyong Hui had repeatedly petitioned her brother Kim Jong Il to allow her to divorce her husband, a request finally granted just prior to his death. This would mean that at the time of Jang’s execution, he was no longer Kim Jong Un’s uncle.
“(The execution) caused a huge shock and gave the impression that Kim Jong Un was truly cruel and relied on a rule of terror, which was not exactly the case,” Cheong said.
Three others among the seven stepped down because they were old, and the departures of the other two were not related to political purges, Cheong said.
Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.