Share and Follow
Like many teenagers, Kim Ju-Ae, at 13, is keen on making a fashionable impression. She sports a trendy hairstyle and dresses in stylish outfits.
However, unlike her peers who often share playful memes, dance clips, or goofy photos with friends, Kim Ju-Ae’s activities set her apart.
She is frequently seen handling sniper rifles, observing nuclear missile tests, attending state visits, or taking prominent roles in grand military parades.
Remarkably, despite her young age, she commands significant influence, with decorated generals bowing before her and government officials speaking with caution to avoid any disrespect.
Intelligence sources suggest she has been named ‘Missile General Director,’ indicating her significant role over the world’s fourth-largest military and its growing arsenal in one of the nine confirmed nuclear nations.
This, then is no ordinary teenager. She is the ‘most beloved child’ of North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un – and appears to have been chosen by her father to inherit the diabolical dynastic dictatorship that runs the planet’s most repressive state.
The first pictures of Kim Ju-Ae were released less than four years ago, but in recent months state media has been pumping out slick propaganda footage of the teenager and her father to build up her image as a strong potential leader and his rightful successor.
The despot is just 42 but given his morbid obesity – along with his heavy drinking, smoking, signs of ill-health and family history of heart disease – there seems every chance that this mysterious young teenager will likely become the first-Generation Alpha (born between 2010-2024) dictator.
Kim Ju-Ae (pictured) has recently been appointed ‘Missile General Director’, according to intelligence reports
She is the ‘most beloved child’ of Kim Jong-Un (pictured with Kim Ju-Ae in September 2023) – and appears to have been chosen by her father to inherit the dictatorship
But if she does succeed to the throne in the Hermit Kingdom, she faces a fight to win over a conservative culture in a highly militarised state that views women as weak.
There are also suggestions of a palace power struggle with her aunt, Kim Yo-jong, who is a highly influential official.
And power struggles in North Korea can have gruesome outcomes. When Kim Jong-Un became leader in 2011, he was in his late twenties and the Kim family’s third generation of leader.
To impose his authority, he executed his ultra-powerful uncle using anti-aircraft guns after labelling him ‘worse than a dog’.
This week, in the bustling city of Seoul in South Korea, I met defectors and intelligence sources.
They recounted intriguing whispers that have emerged from the capital Pyongyang that the dictator has an older son with serious health issues or disabilities who has been hidden to protect the quasi-religious mythology that deifies the ruling family.
It all adds to the intrigue swirling around this sinister state, which is now a key player in the axis of autocracies led by China and Russia that are challenging Western democracy.
North Korea has already sent thousands of soldiers to fight and die in the far-off battlefields of Ukraine.
As always with this ruthlessly controlled regime that enslaves 26million people, outsiders must piece together facts based on crumbs of evidence released by the state propaganda machine, obtained by intelligence agencies or gathered by defectors who retain links inside the isolated country.
And one thing is clear from what is emerging: the sudden publicity to promote Kim Ju-Ae is in stark contrast to the life led by her father as a teenager.
He lived in secrecy, studying under a false name in Switzerland for several years.
While North Korean pupils today are taught that their leader was a child prodigy who could drive aged three and won a boat race at nine, Swiss classmates remember him rather differently.
Kim Jong-Un was a shy boy who loved watching basketball but struggled in class.
‘The core of the system is the beatification of the Kim family and we are seeing a new chapter in this beatification,’ according to Kim Se-won, a writer for the NK Insider website who served ten years in North Korea’s military before defecting in 2012.
He pointed to the flurry of recent displays of Kim Ju-Ae engaged in various military activities, along with reports that she supposedly offered penetrating insights on a visit to a vegetable factory.
‘It is all designed to say that she is young but has all the qualities of a leader,’ said Kim Se-won.
Pictured: The pair observe a training exercise using the North Korean Army’s rocket launchers at an undisclosed location in North Korea last month
The despot is just 42 but given his multitude of health issues, there seems every chance this mysterious young teenager will likely become the first-Generation Alpha dictator
‘A lovely daughter but also a sharpshooter at such a young age. Put all this together and the machinery is presenting her as a wonderful and genius leader.’
Yet as one intelligence source in Seoul pointed out, they have still not managed to confirm her exact age or even her real name, such are the complexities of analysing a maverick state built on lies.
Her existence was unknown until it was disclosed by flamboyant former US basketball star Dennis Rodman – an unlikely friend of the portly dictator after the pair bonded over sport, karaoke and ‘wild nights’ of partying – following his second trip to North Korea in 2013.
Rodman prattled to one newspaper about how Kim Jong-Un was a ‘good dad’ to his baby daughter, whom he named as Ju-ae – thus breaking the regime’s strict code of silence surrounding release of details about the ruling family’s personal life.
But even her supposed name could have been a misunderstanding – perhaps confused with the Korean for ‘that girl’ – after her parents showed their infant to Rodman. She is never referred to by name in Pyongyang’s propaganda.
She has, however, been described several times in state media as ‘hyang-do-ja’ – a term denoting leadership that literally means ‘pathfinder’ and was previously used for her father, grandfather Kim Jong-il and her great grandfather and founder of the state, Kim Il-Sung.
She was introduced initially to North Koreans in November 2022 as the leader’s ‘loving child’.
The following year she was upgraded in media reports to ‘female general, the Morning Star of Korea’ – a clear echo of the title awarded to Kim Il-Sung when he was a guerrilla leader fighting against the Japanese in World War Two.
She has made 61 reported public appearances. The images show her evolution from small child in a white puffa jacket clutching her father’s hand into a confident young girl with permed hair – longer than is permitted for other citizens – clad in designer clothes such as a black Dior coat.
On several recent outings she has worn matching black leather attire to her father to symbolise their special bond.
The imagery implies that Kim Ju-Ae is equal to her father, sometimes emphasised by her mother, Ri Sol-ju, walking behind them. (She, too, is a mysterious figure who was a member of the national cheerleading team and studied in China before marring Kim Jong-Un in 2009.)
Such is the growing influence of Kim Ju-Ae that a joint portrait with her father has been hung at the North Korea Embassy in Beijing – and under a new law, anyone imitating her trademark ‘rooster’ hairstyle faces an instant ‘punishment haircut’ and six months in a hellish labour camp.
This is a nation, after all, that seeks to control citizens, based on adulation for their leader whose face adorns a badge that must be worn at all times.
Any transgressions attract brutal retribution, including sending entire families to prison camps for life.
Some suggest Kim Ju-Ae’s sudden high-profile is sparking resentment.
‘I hear from contacts in North Korea about increasing disappointment since they see Kim Ju-Ae in her expensive clothes, looking like a small girl at important events, while ordinary citizens endure worsening rules and economic difficulties,’ one defector told me.
But if she does succeed to the throne, she faces a fight to win over a conservative culture that views women as weak. There are also suggestions of a palace power struggle with her aunt, Kim Yo-jong (pictured, in 2019), who is a highly influential official
On several recent outings Kim Ju-Ae has worn matching black leather attire to her father to symbolise their special bond. Pictured: The pair at a military parade in Kim Il-Sung Square in Pyongyang last month
More than half her public appearances have had a military backdrop, and the push has intensified since November when – attending an event to mark the 80th anniversary of North Korea’s air force – she was filmed taking salutes from officers without the noticeable presence of her father.
Such scenes are significant in a nation where symbolism is laden with meaning.
‘All the attention and deliberate public signalling is fascinating,’ said S Paul Choi, a military and security expert in Seoul.
‘It is crucial in North Korea to have support of the military, so are they trying to build up her bona fides with the hardliners?
‘How does Kim Jong-Un know who is really loyal to him, let alone his daughter? So, I wonder if he is trying to provide her with insurance for when he is not around.
‘This allows her to build up credibility while also building popular support with the public.’
Choi said that when Kim Jong-Un took power, scepticism among the old guard is thought to have triggered his decision to torpedo a South Korea navy corvette with the loss of 46 deaths to demonstrate his toughness.
His daughter would face similar challenges, especially over her gender in this rigidly patriarchal society.
This may explain why Kim Jong-Un spoke earlier this month for the first time on International Women’s Day, hailing the importance of women as ‘the strong pillars’ of their ‘revolution’ while attending a concert with his wife and daughter.
Last month’s party congress also saw promotion for several key female officials – including his younger sister Kim Yo-jong, 38, who was given an important new party role while still serving as the dictatorship’s trusted voice to other nations.
Until recently, this influential family member – also secretly educated in Switzerland – was seen as a possible successor.
Analysts claim she took charge briefly in 2014 when her brother had health issues.
Kim Yo-jong has been the country’s key propagandist, flinging insults such as ‘capricious whore’ at South Korean leaders and racist barbs against Barack Obama.
She accompanied her brother to summits with Trump in 2018/2019.
This has led to suggestions – including by a former deputy chief of South Korean National Intelligence Service – that the dramatic rise of Kim Ju-Ae might trigger a family power struggle or even an attempted bloody palace coup.
Others in South Korea’s intelligence community strongly disagree.
The imagery implies that Kim Ju-Ae (left) is equal to her father (centre), sometimes emphasised by her mother, Ri Sol-ju (right), walking behind them (Pictured) in 2023
Pictured: Kim Ju-Ae and Kim Jong-Un speaking with troops during a tactical drill in Pyongyang earlier this month
As leader, she would face challenges over her gender in this rigidly patriarchal society. This may explain why Kim Jong-Un (centre right) spoke earlier this month for the first time on International Women’s Day and attended a celebratory concert with his wife (centre left) and daughter (centre). Pictured: The family at the performance in Pyongyang
‘It is not realistic for succession to be passed to his sister since it must pass to the next generation,’ said one source.
‘And if she challenged Kim Jong-Un, she would be killed instantly.’
This source confirmed the validity of rumours that the regime is hiding the existence of a sick or disabled older child.
‘I do believe he has a son based on what we know. His wife was pregnant. He would be two or three years older, so about 15 or 16.’
Kim Jong-Un and his wife are thought to have a third child born in 2017, although the sex is unknown.
There are also rumours of a son with Hyon Song-wol, a former pop singer who serves as his close aide.
Era Seo, a defector with strong contacts in North Korea, told me of an alternative theory about a male heir she heard from a member of the elite.
‘The reason Kim Ju-Ae is upfront is to disguise the fact about a son who is studying overseas,’ she said.
The prospect of this grisly regime continuing for another generation fills many of its subjects with dread to the extent that one family decided to flee after Kim Ju-Ae’s public unveiling.
‘We began planning to defect from that moment,’ said Kim Yumi, who fled in 2023.
‘I saw this young kid visiting a military base. It looked ridiculous – all the generals bowing to a kid…[but] seeing her visit a military base felt like an official announcement of the next leader.’
Escape from the Hermit Kingdom has become harder in recent years since both North Korea and China have boosted border surveillance and barricades, while Pyongyang has imposed shoot-to-kill policies against defectors.
Few people now manage to get out but Yumi pulled off a daring escape in a fishing boat through minefields and stormy seas with her husband, two children and five other family members.
When we met in a café in Seoul, this woman in her early thirties laughed as she gestured to her hair, tied up in a style that would be banned in her birthplace.
‘This would not be allowed, for sure,’ she said.
There is a flash of anger when I asked how she views the regime that trapped her for three decades.
‘When I think of Kim Jong-Un now, I think of a guy I need to beat to death, she said. ‘If I could summarise him in one word it is gangster.’
Yumi has little doubt Kim Ju-Ae is being lined up as next leader. ‘This will be a continuation of the same system, the same life.
‘But I did not want my children living under this dictatorial system. I wanted to provide them with freedom.’
Tragically, millions more people remain under this barbaric regime where a young girl is being groomed to continue a rule over both them – and the country’s bristling armoury of nuclear weapons that presents such a danger to the rest of the planet.