South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has told lawmakers that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has moved beyond merely training his daughter Kim Ju Ae as a possible successor and has entered a stage where she is being treated as a designated heir. According to lawmakers briefed by the agency, this conclusion is based on a combination of her frequent public appearances, her role at major political events and signs that she is beginning to participate in discussions on state affairs. Lawmaker Lee Seong-kwen has said the agency’s view is that these developments, taken together, indicate a formal phase of successor designation.
A central part of the analysis is Kim Ju Ae’s presence at key state ceremonies. She has appeared at events such as the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army and a visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, venues normally associated with top level symbolism and authority. The NIS has also detected indications that she has expressed views on certain policy matters. Intelligence officials are now watching closely to see whether she attends the upcoming Workers’ Party Congress, the largest political gathering in North Korea, held every five years. The congress is expected to set priorities for the next five years, including foreign policy, war planning, nuclear strategy and changes to senior personnel. Her attendance, the position she is given in protocol, the titles attached to her name and her placement in official photo lines will all be treated as important clues to her exact status.
Early life, public debut and rising profile
Kim Ju Ae is believed to be about 13 years old, although her age has never been confirmed by Pyongyang. She is the only child of Kim Jong Un and Ri Sol Ju who has been shown in state media. The NIS believes Kim Jong Un has an older son, but this child has never been publicly acknowledged, and many external analysts think there may be three children in total, a claim that cannot be independently verified.
The wider world first learned of Kim Ju Ae in 2013, when American basketball player Dennis Rodman told a British newspaper that he had met and held her during a visit to Pyongyang. For years afterward she did not appear in public broadcasts. Her first official appearance came in November 2022, when she stood alongside her father during the inspection and launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Since then she has been shown at further missile launches, military parades and high level banquets attended by senior officials.
By early the following year, her image was printed on commemorative postage stamps, and state media began referring to her using an honorific normally reserved for the top leadership, a form of address that Kim Jong Un himself received only after his own succession was firmly established. The NIS has also said that she enjoys horse riding, skiing and swimming and is believed to be educated at home in Pyongyang.
Dynastic rule and unresolved succession questions
In January 2024, South Korea’s intelligence service publicly assessed that Kim Ju Ae was the most likely successor to Kim Jong Un, while stressing that this judgment could change, given the leader’s relatively young age and the lack of clear information about other possible heirs. Her international profile increased in September 2025, when she accompanied her father to Beijing for a military parade hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, which was also attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was the first time she had been seen outside North Korea, underlining her emerging role on the global stage.
North Korea has been ruled by the Kim family since 1948, with power passing from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Il and then to Kim Jong Un. The system promotes the idea of a sacred family bloodline, under which only members of this dynasty are treated as legitimate national leaders. Some experts interpret Kim Ju Ae’s prominence as a deliberate effort by Kim Jong Un to prepare both the public and the elite for the possibility that she will one day take power. Others caution that succession decisions in North Korea are highly opaque and that another child could still be chosen.
Kim Jong Un is widely believed to be in his early forties, and there has been no formal announcement from Pyongyang naming any heir. Current assessments about Kim Ju Ae’s position rely on intelligence reporting, analysis of her appearances, the language used by state media and her protocol ranking at official events, rather than on any explicit confirmation from the regime.
