September 5, 2025
SEOUL – For nearly three years, North Korea has been scripting the staged rise of Kim Jong-un’s adolescent daughter — believed to be named Kim Ju-ae — through a blend of honorifics, wardrobe choices, positioning in photographs and an expanding range of public activities covered in the tightly controlled state media.
Ju-ae debuted in November 2022 as “the beloved daughter,” a shy figure in a white padded jacket clutching her father’s hand beside the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, serving essentially as a prop for her father.
Within a year and a half, however, Ju-ae was no longer tucked into the background, as state media elevated her honorifics. She was promoted to one of the “great persons of guidance,” taking one of the two main chairs beside her father on the review stand at Kim Il-sung Square, which can accommodate around 100,000 people.
At times, Ju-ae dresses like her father, in matching sunglasses and a leather jacket. She has even appeared slightly ahead of her father, making her presence more noticeable in official photographs.
As a visual thread of dynastic continuity, she has cycled through a Dior down jacket, a lavish pink fur coat, a Cartier watch with a diamond-encrusted bezel and sheer-sleeved dresses — a daring choice considering the country’s strict dress code — and other carefully curated outfits.
Over the past week, Ju-ae has stepped into the choreography of international spectacle, accompanying her father to his first-ever multilateral diplomatic event alongside 26 heads of state, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Beyond the pictures in state media, much about Ju-ae remains shrouded in mystery
Her name was first disclosed through former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who said he had “held their baby Ju-ae” and spoken with Kim’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, during his visit to Pyongyang in 2013.
However, some defectors, including Ri Il-gyu, the former second-ranking North Korean diplomat in Cuba, later contended her name should be rendered “Ju-ye.”
Questions have also lingered about her place among her siblings.
In 2017, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers during a closed-door briefing that Kim had three children — a son born around 2010, a daughter around 2013 and a younger child born in 2017 — though Pyongyang has never confirmed their identities.
Others insist Ju-ae is the firstborn daughter, pointing to former South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s memoir. Recalling the inter-Korean summit in April 2018, Moon wrote that Kim told him, “I, too, have a daughter, and I cannot let her generation live under the shadow of nuclear weapons.”
Observers point out that if Kim’s eldest were a son, he would more likely have said that he has a son or simply children.
Ri Sol-ju’s public schedule offers another clue to the timing of Ju-ae’s birth.
Ri accompanied Kim frequently in 2012, then vanished for about 50 days after September. When Ri reappeared in late October at a Moranbong Band concert, she showed a visibly swollen face and pronounced belly.
Ri attended sporadic events through December 2012, disappeared again after a New Year’s concert on Jan. 1, 2013, and returned only on Feb. 16 — an absence-and-return cycle that would strongly suggest Ju-ae was born around January 2013.
North Korean propaganda has steadily upgraded the language surrounding Ju-ae, moving from the familial to quasi-leadership.
Ju-ae debuted in November 2022 at the Hwasong-17 test-launch as “the beloved daughter,” and became “precious” days later in a state media report on a ceremony awarding those who contributed to the successful Hwasong-17 launch.
In February 2023, she was described as “the respected daughter” sitting prominently on the review stand during a military parade report.
In March 2024, Ju-ae and her father were together described as “the great persons of guidance,” a phrase once reserved for the leader alone at the inauguration ceremony of Kangdong Greenhouse Farm in a Pyongyang suburb.
In May this year, at a Russian Embassy reception on the occasion of Russia’s Victory Day celebration in Pyongyang, she was introduced as “his dearest daughter,” a phrase intended to emphasize lineage and legitimacy.
Pyongyang also unveiled stamps featuring the imagery of Ju-ae holding hands with her father against a backdrop of the Hwasong-17 ICBM, linking arms in a staged pose or photographed with soldiers.
When Ju-ae’s public life began in November 2022, she appeared to be an accessory for her father in a highly choreographed state media report idolizing the North Korean leader, clutching her father’s hand.
But in the following year, she was no longer tucked into the background.
At the North Korean Navy headquarters, she walked just off the red carpet, flanked behind by Pak Jong-chon, deputy chair of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea Central Military Commission, and then-Defense Minister Gen. Kang Sun-nam in August 2023 — a tableau that Seoul officials said carried the weight of protocol for Ju-ae. A copy of Kim Jong-un’s speech was laid in front of Ju-ae — not top military brass.
The optics shifted. At the February 2023 military parade, she had been seated behind her father at the review stand to observe Kim Il-sung Square; by September that year, Ju-ae occupied one of the two prime chairs beside Kim Jong-un on the same review stand during the paramilitary parade.
On Air Force Day that December, official photographs released by state media even placed Ju-ae slightly ahead of Kim Jong-un, her figure more prominent in the frame.
This year, Ju-ae crossed into diplomacy.
On May 9, she accompanied her father to a Russian Embassy reception in Pyongyang, introduced as “his dearest daughter.” A month later, she was again by his side at a concert attended by Russia’s culture minister.
Even family ceremonies were stage-managed to highlight her presence.
When the Kim family attended the inauguration of the Wonsan Kalma coastal resort in June, Ju-ae’s mother Ri Sol-ju, appearing for the first time in 18 months, was shown by state media walking a few paces back, seemingly to spotlight her daughter.
A Unification Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that “the level of deference and protocol accorded to Kim Ju-ae has steadily risen over time.”
Ju-ae’s wardrobe plays a key role in her public appearances, with each outfit carefully selected for the occasion.
Ju-ae made her debut in November 2022 at the Hwasong-17 missile launch, wearing a simple white padded jacket that emphasized her youth beside her father.
However, her style has since become more lavish and assertive.
In March 2023, Ju-ae appeared in a black down jacket from Dior’s children’s line, priced at nearly $2,000 — a stark contrast against the country’s chronic shortages and strict sanctions — while accompanying her father at another Hwasong-17 test launch.
In a similar fashion, she attended a Hwasong-18 ICBM test in December that year, wrapped in a lavish pink fur jacket.
Ju-ae also wore a twin look with her father, a coordinated style that projected authority.
In November 2023, Ju-ae appeared at the Air Force headquarters in matching sunglasses and a leather jacket alongside her father. She also donned a deep plum leather coat — striking attire for someone her age — matched with her father’s black leather jacket at the Kangdong greenhouse inauguration in March 2024.
Ju-ae has sometimes made bold choices in a country known for a strict dress code, such as a sheer-sleeved dress at the unveiling of Pyongyang’s Jonwi Street in May 2024.
At the inauguration of the Wonsan Kalma coastal resort this June, Ju-ae was seen in a white two-piece outfit and a Cartier watch edged with diamonds — a clear display of defiance against UN sanctions banning imports of luxury goods.