Unveiling the Enigma: Meet Kim Jong Un’s Secretive Daughter Once Held by Dennis Rodman

Despite her youth, she is already being groomed for a pivotal role in North Korea’s nuclear future.

Ju Ae, estimated to be between 12 and 14 years old, has emerged from obscurity to join her father at missile launches, military parades, and significant state gatherings.

This week, South Korean intelligence reported that her growing visibility hints she is likely being positioned as her father’s successor, although no official statement has been made by the secretive regime.

Since her introduction to the public eye in 2022, she has become an increasingly frequent figure at the core of Pyongyang’s power structure.

Once kept from the public gaze, she now confidently walks alongside her father, hand in hand, before rows of generals and applauding party dignitaries.

She is the child of Kim Jong Un, the ruler who has overseen nuclear weapons tests that rattled the world, purged senior officials and allegedly ordered executions with anti-aircraft guns. 

It is that apparatus of fear and firepower she could one day command. 

Believed to be about 14, Ju Ae has stepped from the shadows to stand beside her father at missile launches, military parades and high-level state events, fuelling mounting speculation that she is being positioned as his successor

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (centre L) and his daughter Ju Ae (centre R) inspecting a training of the Korean People’s Army in 2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his daughter Kim Ju Ae, directs a test of a large-caliber multiple-rocket launch system, in an unknown location, North Korea, January 27, 2026

Kim Jong Un (C) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae (front) inspecting a test firing of the renewed large-caliber rocket launcher system in January

The same regime that tests nuclear missiles and purges rivals also dictates the smallest details of daily life, with citizens forced to choose from a narrow range of government-approved hairstyles 

Ju Ae’s rise brings extraordinary privilege.

As the daughter of one of the world’s most ruthless dictators, she is believed to enjoy a life of luxury in a country where millions face chronic food shortages and repression. 

Yet the perks come with immense expectation, and the heavy burden of a nuclear arsenal, a vast military machine and a personality cult built around the Kim bloodline.

Little is publicly known about Ju Ae, and even her precise age is uncertain, though she is widely believed to be aged between 12 and 14. 

Raised behind the guarded walls of North Korea’s ruling dynasty, she is thought to be one of three children born to Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol Ju.

Ju Ae spent her childhood hidden from the world inside the secluded compounds of the Kim family before her dramatic debut in 2022 at a missile launch propelled her onto the global stage.

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un (3-R) and his daughter Ju-ae (2-R) inspecting the launch of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in 2023

Kim Jong Un and his daughter Ju Ae inspecting a newly-completed food factory in Sinpo city

This picture taken on December 31, 2025 and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on January 1, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his daughter Kim Ju Ae (C) and wife Ri Sol Ju (L) watching a New Year’s celebration performance

Kim Jong Un (C) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae participating in a tree-planting ceremony at the construction site of the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats in January

Since then, North Korean state media have referred to her as ‘the beloved child’ and a ‘great person of guidance’ – ‘hyangdo’ in Korean – a term typically reserved for top leaders and their successors. 

 In 2013, former NBA star Dennis Rodman claimed he had held the leader’s baby daughter during a controversial visit to Pyongyang, describing her as ‘Ju Ae’. 

At the time, the remark was largely dismissed. It now appears to have been the first public glimpse of a child who may one day inherit a nuclear-armed state.

Details of her education remain closely guarded, though analysts believe she has been privately schooled within elite compounds in Pyongyang rather than sent abroad. 

Unlike her father, Kim Jong Un, who spent part of his youth studying in Switzerland, there is no evidence she has received schooling outside North Korea. 

Rodman later suggested the young girl enjoyed sports and described her father as ‘a good dad’, offering one of the only fleeting insights into her private life. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae visit the Kwangchon Chicken Farm near Pyongyang in 2024

Details of her education remain closely guarded, though analysts believe she has been privately schooled within elite compounds in Pyongyang rather than sent abroad

Kim Jong-un and his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, at the Wonsan-Kalma Beach Resort

Beyond that, almost nothing is officially known. 

In carefully choreographed photographs released by state media, Ju Ae is typically dressed in dark tailored coats, standing between decorated generals or beside towering intercontinental ballistic missiles. 

In some images she clasps her father’s hand, while in others she surveys vast military hardware with an expression of calm composure that appears far beyond her years.

In 2023, South Korean media reported that some North Koreans privately expressed anger after Ju Ae appeared well-fed in state broadcasts despite the country’s chronic food shortages. 

Commentators outside the country noted her healthy appearance, with one  describing her as looking ‘plump like the moon’ – a phrase that circulated widely online. 

The reaction came amid warnings from Seoul-based analysts that North Korea was facing a significant grain shortfall, raising fresh questions about inequality inside the tightly controlled state.