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Is NBA’s Dennis Rodman to blame for Kim Jong-un’s daughter being known by the wrong name? Ex-South Korean spy says yes
- Choe Su-yong, a former intelligence official claims the media is using the wrong name to refer to Kim’s daughter, and that her name is Eun-ju, not Ju-ae
- Choe claims Kim introduced his daughter to Dennis Rodman, saying in Korean that ‘jeo-ae’ (that girl) is his daughter. Rodman misunderstood ‘jeo-ae’ as her name
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Why you can trust SCMP
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In North Korea, any information about its leader is top secret. When the late Kim Jong-il, father of current leader Kim Jong-un, was in power, citizens in the North did not even know if he was married or whether he had any children.
Some defectors testified that it was only after they arrived in South Korea that they came to know the older Kim was married several times and had four children, including Kim Jong-un and his half-brother Kim Jong-nam who was assassinated after being poisoned by VX nerve agent in 2014 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
North Korea’s decades-long tradition of keeping its leader’s family tree under wraps was partially broken when Kim Jong-un rose to power following his father’s sudden death in 2011 due to cardiac arrest.
He appeared in public with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, multiple times. He showed up at several major events along with his daughter since she was first spotted in November last year during the test launch of the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile.
Ju-ae is a misnomer. Her name is Eun-ju, not Ju-ae
Despite the change, other details of Kim’s daughter, such as her age and other siblings, remain unknown. In the North’s state-controlled media, Kim’s daughter is depicted as the “respected child” or “dear child” of its supreme leader, without revealing her name.
South Korean and Western media, however, have referred to her as Kim’s second child “Ju-ae” since her first public appearance.
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