Kim Jong-un increasingly appears accompanied by his daughter. What does this mean?
South Korean intelligence has named the daughter of North Korean leader Kim Ju Ae as the future successor of Kim Jong Un. The foreign press notes that the daughter of the leader of the republic has been accompanying him at official events since October 2022, acquiring political connections and diplomatic skills. What is known about Kim Ju Ae and why her public appearances with her father caused such a resonance is in the Izvestia article.
The only known heiress
• Information about the family of North Korean President Kim Jong-un is private and carefully guarded: it is not even known how many children the head of state has, not to mention their names and ages. In domestic publications, Kim Jong-un's daughter is usually referred to as the leader's most beloved or respected daughter, without mentioning her name.
• The name of Kim Jong-un's daughter was discovered in the West only thanks to former National Basketball Association of North America (NBA) star Dennis Rodman. The eccentric athlete came to Pyongyang several times as part of the so-called basketball diplomacy with the intention of organizing a basketball match between the national teams of the DPRK and the United States and softening relations between the countries.
• Rodman said that during a visit to the DPRK in 2013, he met with Kim Jong-un himself, his wife Ri Sol-ju and their newborn daughter, whom the parents named Ju E. Only thanks to this information, the name of the daughter and, as it is assumed in the West, the future successor of Kim Jong-un, as well as her approximate age, are now known. age — 13 years.
Why is she considered a successor
• Western analysts emphasize that photos of the daughter of the leader of the DPRK appear in the media and are not hidden from the public, while Kim Jong-un himself and his father Kim Jong-il were not mentioned in the press until they came of age. Nevertheless, Kim Ju Ae's first public appearance with her father took place in October 2022 at the test launch of a long-range rocket, when she could have been only nine years old.
• The possible preparation of Kim Jong-un's daughter as a successor is also indicated by the status of the events in which she participates. Most often, Kim Ju Ae accompanies his father at the opening of key projects of the republic and the demonstration of the military might of the DPRK. The first official appearances of the daughter of the country's leader were related to the tests of the republic's strategic nuclear weapons, and on May 9, 2025, she and her father paid a diplomatic visit to the Russian embassy in Pyongyang.
• There has been a transfer of power in the DPRK only twice, and it is too early to talk about a clear and recognizable procedure for publicly presenting a future successor. The father of the current leader of the republic entered politics for 30 years, and Kim Jong-un accompanied his father at official events only for a year and a half — after the sudden death of the head of state, he assumed leadership of the country. Western intelligence believes that the release of Kim Jong-un's daughter may be such a preparation for the role of the country's leader.
Women in North Korean politics
• Despite the fact that the nomenclature of the DPRK is predominantly represented by men, women are beginning to play an increasingly prominent role in government. Suffice it to recall the younger sister of the leader of the republic, Kim Yo Jong, who was educated in Switzerland with her brother, but for a long time was in his shadow. Currently, she is the Deputy Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and actually broadcasts the position of the head of the republic at the foreign policy level.
Kim Yo Jong's predecessor in politics can be called Kim Kyong Hee, the younger sister of Kim Jong Il and the daughter of the Eternal President of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung, who at one time was one of the most influential politicians of the republic and also engaged in diplomatic work. After her husband, Jang Song Thaek, was removed from all government posts, accused of treason and executed, Kim Kyong-hee also disappeared from the political arena of the DPRK.
• Another influential political figure of the republic is a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, Choe Song-hee, who headed the country's foreign ministry at the age of 57. In the West, she is called the iron lady of the Juche Country for her tough negotiating style. She was the one who prepared the negotiating track during the first term of US President Donald Trump, but the leaders' meeting was later called a failure.
What does this mean?
It is too early to say that Kim Ju Ae is being groomed to succeed the leader of the DPRK. Kim Jong-un is only 47 years old, and it's premature to talk about the need for a leadership change. Experts note that, despite the more prominent role of women in the republic's politics, there is no reason to believe that there is a change in the established tradition when the state is headed by a man. In the history of the DPRK, there have already been bright strong-willed women who have held high positions in public service, but they have never become leaders of the country.
In addition, Kim Jong-un's daughter has not yet received the education and practical experience necessary to judge her ability to govern. Russian and foreign experts consider the more likely purpose of Kim Ju Ae's appearance in public with her father to demonstrate the importance of family values at the state level and an element of soft power, by analogy with the royal dynasties of Europe.
During the preparation of the material, Izvestia interviewed:
- Konstantin Asmolov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Leading Researcher at the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
- Vadim Kozyulin, Chief Researcher at the MGIMO Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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