North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is appearing to take steps to name his daughter as his official successor.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it believes Kim Ju Ae, who is thought to be around 13 years old, is already providing input on policy matters, suggesting she may be being touted as a future leader.
The teenager has been increasingly visible over the last year, attending missile launches alongside her father and, in 2025, at China’s “Victory Day” parade, which marked her international debut.
The NIS said it will now look to see whether she attends the upcoming Workers’ Party Congress and how she is presented at the party’s biggest political conference, including whether she receives an official title.
“In the past, the NIS described Ju Ae as being ‘in study as successor’ but today the expression used was that she ‘was in the stage of being internally appointed successor’,” South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters following a closed-door briefing on 12 February.
If she does become leader, it would extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation.
Who is Kim Ju Ae?
Apart from her age and name, not much else is known about Kim Ju Ae, and even those details are unconfirmed.
While North Korean state media has never published her name, it does refer to her as Kim Jong Un’s “most beloved” or “respected” child.
South Korean media has previously speculated that she is the leader’s second of three children, and that the first child is a son. However, analysts have questioned the credibility of the reports.
North Korea, which is one of the world’s most secretive nations, has not confirmed whether Ju Ae has any siblings.
It is thought she is the child whom US basketball star Dennis Rodman called Mr Kim’s baby daughter after his trip to the capital Pyongyang in 2013.
Surprise reveal
Ju Ae made her first public appearance in November 2022, when she watched a long-range missile test launch with her father.
It came as a huge surprise to foreign experts as neither Kim Jong Un nor his father Kim Jong Il were mentioned in North Korean state media before they became adults.
Following her sixth public appearance in 2023, a North Korea analyst told Sky News there was a “theme” emerging.
Jean H Lee, who set up the Associated Press news agency’s first bureau in North Korea, said the events she has been attending tend to involve “weapons and missiles”.
She said the most striking images of Ju Ae were from when she attended a military banquet marking the 75th anniversary of the country’s army in February 2023.
“When you look at these pictures she’s front and centre. She is there. It’s like this tableau of father, mother, daughter. And I think what people noticed, of course, first and foremost was, ‘oh my gosh, he’s presenting his daughter’. What does that mean?”, she told the Sky News Daily podcast.
Her carefully crafted appearances have since included missile tests, military parades, and the launch of a naval destroyer in April 2024.
She also accompanied her father to the official opening of the Wonsan holiday resort on the country’s east coast, a concert, and a visit to the Russian culture minister, Olga Lyubimova.
How likely is she to succeed her father?
Mr Kim likely believes his daughter has the capacity and resolve to succeed him as leader, according to an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea.
“By accompanying her father on major events, it’s like she’s learning kingship and building a human network at a tender age,” Cheong Seong-Chang said.
However, South Korea’s intelligence service has a patchy record when it comes to confirming developments in its neighbouring country.
Dr Edward Howell, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Oxford, added that it needs to be remembered Mr Kim is only 43.
He said in the event of Mr Kim’s death in the immediate future, power would likely go to the leader’s sister Kim Yo Jong.
North Korean state media has never officially confirmed or commented on the succession plan.
Read more:
Who is Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong?
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Does gender matter?
In the past, the NIS and other South Korean government officials have cited North Korea’s male-dominated power structure. Since its foundation in 1948, North Korea has been ruled by successive male members of the Kim family.
Dr Howell said crucial for the survival of the Kim dynasty is the “Baekdu bloodline” which ensures that any leader is a Kim, regardless of gender.
“Whatever pairs of chromosomes you might have, that doesn’t play a big roll compared to being a Kim, a member of the bloodline.”
Analyst Jean H Lee, told Sky’s Daily podcast in 2023 that Ju Ae’s appearances are a “cultivation of the Kim family, monarchy and dynasty”.
She said: “I’m sure there is in some part a strategy of trying to portray themselves, kind of like the Royal Family in the United Kingdom.”
