North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took his daughter to her first international event this week, taking her with him to China, and offering the clearest sign yet that he may be positioning her as successor to the Kim family dynasty, analysts say.
The girl, who is believed to be called Ju Ae and is about 12 years old, according to South Korean intelligence officials, has increasingly been accompanying her father to military, political and economic events inside North Korea.
But her appearance in Beijing, where Kim attended an enormous military parade, has fuelled speculation that she is next in line to rule the totalitarian state as its fourth-generation leader.
“When looking at the overall symbolism, this sure looks like she is crossing the final gateway toward being appointed as the successor,” said Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
When Kim stepped off the heavily armoured train that transported him some 20 hours from Pyongyang to Beijing yesterday, it was not his wife Ri Sol-ju but his daughter who followed him on to the red carpet.
Photos show a smiling Ju Ae standing right behind her father – and before North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui – as one of the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior officials, Cai Qi, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed them at a Beijing train station.
Experts note the girl is too young for them to jump to conclusions just yet. After all, her father is only 41 – and his father and grandfather lived to 69 and 82 respectively – and she is female, a trait not valued in North Korea’s patriarchal system.
Being formally appointed as heir requires certain protocols within the party, which have yet to take place.
But Ju Ae’s increasingly high-profile appearances are all pointing in the direction of succession.
Since her first appearance in November 2022, wearing a puffy winter jacket and sporting bangs that framed her childish face, Ju Ae has transformed into a polished royal daughter, adopting her mother’s signature hairstyle and donning designer outfits.
Ju Ae made her diplomatic debut in May, attending a Victory Day event at the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang and greeting Russian Ambassador Alexander Matsegora.
Four months later, she is gaining protocol experience on her first overseas trip in Beijing, in a visibly diplomatic role alongside her father to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.
The girl - dressed in a dark suit and a matching bow in her hair - followed directly behind her father off the train, a highly symbolic position in the diplomatic hierarchy usually occupied by the first lady, and in front of Choe.
She did not accompany her father on the dais of world leaders overlooking Tiananmen Square in central Beijing for the military parade, where some leaders brought their wives. North Korean state media has not shown additional images of Ju Ae beyond her arrival in Beijing.
This was Kim’s first trip to China since 2019 and his first time at an international gathering of world leaders - a rare opportunity to raise his profile and rub shoulders with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a show of defiance against the Western-led global order.
It had been nearly four decades since a North Korean leader attended a major multilateral event, as Kim’s father shied away from such gatherings.
As the leaders of 26 countries arrived at the parade, Kim and Putin flanked Xi, chatting and laughing as they sought to show camaraderie.
After the parade, Kim and Putin met in a bilateral meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where Putin is staying, Russian state media outlet Tass reported. The two leaders travelled there together in the same car, the Kremlin posted on Telegram.
Putin thanked Kim and praised his soldiers for fighting “courageously and valiantly” alongside Russian forces, according to Putin’s opening remarks that aired on state media.
“We will never forget the sacrifices made by your armed forces and their families,” Putin said.
North Korea has sent as many as 15,000 troops since 2024 to Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been holding on to a sliver of territory, according to South Korean intelligence.
North Korea has had a complicated relationship with China, especially as Kim drew closer to Putin through a military partnership after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. But China remains North Korea’s biggest trading partner by far and its economic lifeline, and an important patron to placate.
“It’s good timing for Kim, it’s great optics. It really elevates North Korea’s stature so he can promote it back home,” said John Delury, an expert on China and the Korean Peninsula who is a Seoul-based senior fellow at the Asia Society.
That made it an all-the-more-important venue for Kim to introduce his daughter to world leaders and to high-profile diplomacy.
“I think she’s being groomed as heir, full stop,” Delury said. “Needless to say, it’s not necessary to have her on this trip. It’s gratuitous, in that sense. I think it just goes to the point that it’s training, and it’s a learning experience for her.”
It’s not a completely unusual move for the Kim family: Kim’s father was 16 when he accompanied Kim’s grandfather to Moscow in 1959 to attend the 21st Congress of the Soviet Communist Party. Kim was announced to the military as his father’s successor when he was only 8 years old, according to his aunt.
Still, Ju Ae is the youngest of the Kims to be shown so publicly, in such a high-profile way, before being officially designated successor.
Rachel Minyoung Lee, a North Korea expert at the Washington-based Stimson Center, said while it is clear the girl is increasingly getting more exposure, it’s premature to say she is a part of a succession campaign. When Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, led a major anti-South Korea campaign five years ago, there was similar speculation that she was being positioned as his successor, Lee noted.
Kim could be bringing his daughter along to broaden her horizons and expose her to more of the world outside of the reclusive country, or wanting to portray himself as a relatable, “normal leader from a normal country,” Lee said.
“It’s hard to say because we’ve never had the situation before where they brought out a young Kim. So it is hard to compare … but I don’t know that that’s enough to say that this is part of the succession campaign,” Lee said.
Plus, there remains a complex question: Could a woman be the leader of North Korea, a heavily chauvinistic society?
Between Kim’s influential sister and Choe, the foreign minister, there are more powerful women in Kim’s regime than ever before. But North Korea remains a deeply male-dominated society where violence and discrimination run rampant against women. Many experts and female escapees, including those from elite families in Pyongyang, say it is difficult to imagine a woman in charge of the country.
For now, North Korea has not yet confirmed the daughter’s name or age, instead referring to her as the “most beloved daughter” of its leader, a more significant description than previous honorifics like “respected child.”
But she is believed to be the girl called Ju Ae, whom retired NBA star Dennis Rodman revealed in 2013, when he described holding her as a baby during his visit to Pyongyang that year.
South Korea’s spy agency has said it believes Kim has three children: an eldest son, Ju Ae and a youngest child of unknown gender. North Korea has not confirmed these details.
Michelle Ye Hee Lee is The Washington Post’s Tokyo bureau chief, covering Japan and the Korean peninsula. Mary Ilyushina in Berlin contributed to this report.
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