North Korea released photographs showing leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, accompanying her parents on her first public visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a highly symbolic appearance that adds to mounting signs she is being groomed as a successor in the hereditary regime.
Images carried by the state news agency, KCNA, showed Ju Ae standing between Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, in the palace’s main hall, where the bodies of Kim’s grandfather and state founder, Kim Il Sung, and his father, Kim Jong Il, lie in state. Senior officials were also present, underscoring the formal nature of the visit to the mausoleum that anchors the Kim family’s dynastic narrative.
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Ju Ae has featured more prominently in state media over the past three years, appearing at military events, missile launches and national celebrations. Analysts and South Korea’s intelligence service have said the pattern suggests the teenager is being positioned to eventually succeed her father, potentially becoming the fourth generation to rule the nuclear-armed state.
Cheong Seong-chang, vice president at the Sejong Institute, said Ju Ae’s debut at Kumsusan appeared to be a calculated move by Kim ahead of an upcoming Workers’ Party Congress, where her status could be further elevated or formalized.
North Korea has not confirmed Ju Ae’s age, and the government does not publicly discuss the leader’s family. She is believed to have been born in the early 2010s. State media reported she attended New Year festivities this year and, in September, accompanied her father to Beijing in what was described as her first public overseas outing.
Kim’s periodic visits to Kumsusan on key anniversaries and state occasions serve to honor his predecessors and underscore the regime’s claim to continuity and legitimacy. The inclusion of his daughter in such a setting marks a milestone in her public rollout, elevating her from ceremonial appearances to participation in the family’s most revered political ritual.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry declined to comment on Ju Ae’s latest appearance. An official told reporters it is too early to describe her as a designated successor, citing her age and the fact she holds no official position.
Some specialists also caution against firm conclusions, noting that Kim has other children who have not been publicly introduced and the leadership’s internal calculus remains opaque. “It’s practically impossible to publicly designate Kim Ju Ae, who is believed to have just turned 13, as the successor when she’s not even old enough to join the (Workers’) Party,” Mr. Hong said.
Still, the setting and choreography carry weight in a country where lineage, symbolism and state media framing often foreshadow decisions made behind closed doors. Ju Ae’s positioning at the center of the palace hall—literally between the leader and the first lady—follows a visual language North Korean propaganda has long used to signal status and proximity to power.
What to watch next is whether Ju Ae receives formal party or state titles, appears at military parades in a more prominent role, or is referenced in state media with honorifics that suggest an elevated rank. Any such steps, especially around a party congress, would lend credence to the view that Kim is purposefully introducing the next generation of the ruling family to the North Korean public and the world.
For now, Sunday’s mausoleum visit adds another data point to a carefully managed succession narrative—quietly sketched in photographs, ritual and placement—without a single official word on who stands next in line.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
