When a young girl appeared beside Kim Jong Un at a ballistic missile launch in November 2022, few outside North Korea understood what they were witnessing. She was about ten years old. State media identified her as Kim Ju Ae and described her as the leader’s “most beloved child.” It was the first time the North Korean public, and the world, had seen her.
Since then, her presence has become steady and deliberate.
Kim Ju Ae has attended military parades, weapons tests, and state banquets. She has been photographed walking hand in hand with her father at events typically reserved for the most powerful figures in the regime. She has sat beside him at official functions and appeared before senior military officers. In 2024, she was present at a high level meeting with Russia’s Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and was shown inspecting military units and reviewing troops.
She is now 13.
In 2023, North Korean state media began using the word “hyangdo” to describe her. In Korean, the term carries the meaning of guidance or leader. It is the same word used for Kim Jong Un and previously for his father. In the language of the North Korean state, such terminology is not casual. It signals authority and legitimacy.
South Korean intelligence agencies have publicly assessed that Kim Jong Un may be preparing his daughter as his successor. If that assessment proves correct, it would mark a historic shift in the country’s leadership pattern.
North Korea has been ruled by the Kim family for three generations. Kim Il Sung founded the state in 1948 and remained in power until his death in 1994. His son, Kim Jong Il, led the country until 2011. Kim Jong Un assumed control thereafter. The succession has always passed from father to son. Kim Ju Ae would break that tradition.
Intelligence reports indicate that Kim Jong Un has three children, including a son. Yet Kim Ju Ae is the only one who has been presented publicly. In a nation where every picture is managed and every public outing is strategic, this visibility is significant.
It has been observed that in North Korea, “presence equals power.” The more a person is seen in the media, particularly alongside the supreme leader, the more their position is validated among the party members and the military. By placing his daughter beside him at events tied to nuclear weapons and military strength, Kim Jong Un appears to be shaping her image as part of the state’s core authority.
There are also practical considerations. Kim Jong Un is believed to face health concerns. He is in his early forties but is known to smoke heavily and struggle with weight related issues. His father died at 69 and his grandfather at 82. In authoritarian regimes, power vacuums can cause turmoil and struggle within the leadership. Naming a successor while still in power can prevent this.
However, many questions still exist. North Korea’s power structure is dominated by senior military officers and long serving party officials. Would they accept a female leader in a system that has never been headed by a woman? Would they take a leader who would still be considered young at the time of succession?
By making Kim Ju Ae appear before the public at a young age, Kim Jong Un may be trying to make her position normal. If she is made visible for many years, her leadership would not seem sudden or strange when the time comes.
Read Also: Korean K-Rice Belt Initiative team briefs Sierra Leone’s President on rice production progress
If she does take over, Kim Ju Ae would be one of the youngest leaders in history and the first female leader of North Korea. For now, the world is watching as a 13 year old girl is gradually positioned within the inner circle of one of the world’s most tightly controlled and nuclear armed states.
