Kim Jong-un’s teen daughter is being actively prepared to assume her dad’s mantle as supreme leader of North Korea, key signs suggest, as her public presentation undergoes a remarkable shift.
Kim Ju-ae, as the only child of Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol-Ju, has, despite the nuclear pariah nation’s history of exclusive leadership passage from parent to child, not always been the clear heir apparent. She was only pictured for the first time during an announcement to the world from inside North Korea in 2022, at the time believed to be around nine years old.
She was presented to the public in images showing her accompanying the dictator during an inspection of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, but has only recently been seen as the person who could inherit the country’s growing arsenal of between 70 to 90 weapons.
In recent years, she has been pictured firing pistols and sniper rifles, evoking the same hostile image as her father has her narrative noticably shifts from being a heavily protected child to future dictator.
She has been labelled the world’s “most dangerous 13-year-old” thanks to her dad’s designs for her, as the regime puts her on display alongside its ballistic missiles, military parades, and nuclear weapons tests. Observers have picked out key signs that she could one day inherit the vicious state apparatus her dad has commanded since 2011.
Kiss with dad
Unlike western political figures, North Korea’s rulers can only be pictured when they expressly want to be – usually in tightly scripted situations. One of those situations appeared to arise at midnight on January 1, when the Kim family celebrated the new year with a concert at the Rungrado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang.
In a choreographed moment, Kim leans in and taps on his daughter’s chair, eliciting an immediate reaction from the teen, who leans in, cups her father’s head in her hands, and kisses him on the cheek.
Afterwards, she wheeled around and quickly looked over to her mum, Ri Sol-ju, who she appeared to be searching for some kind of approval. The mum, however, just smiled at her daughter while continuing to clap. Korean publications have concluded that the embrace – which has fetched controversy over its intimacy – was meant to show Kim’s physical proximity to power.
Portrait badges
North Korean diktat requires officials and members of the public to display a pin badge on their lapel with a portrait of the country’s founder and son – Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
Regulations requiring the badges are strict and enforced with only two exceptions, and not wearing the badge brings into question people’s loyalty to the system. Non-wearers are therefore treated in the same vein as traitors, and may be arrested by North Korea’s National Security Agency or Military Police Service.
Only Kim and his wife have ever been publicly seen without one. The pair’s teen daughter, however, appears to also have been excepted from the rule, but noticeably has another symbol entirely pinned to her lapel in recent pictures.
Range of brooches
Kim has been seen wearing two pins; a red flower and Magnolia. The latter of the two was seen when she stepped out with Kim for International Women’s Day, sporting the country’s national symbol stylised to resemble its national flag.
Observers in South Korea have suggested the flower was intended to claim the young girl as a daughter of the nation. The effect had been evoked earlier in the year on January 1, when, during a ceremony at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, she wore a butterfly brooch with the same stylistic influence.
Kim’s style
Another key tell of the journey being undertaken by Kim is the shift in her style over the years, especially in the way her parents have chosen to dress her in coats.
In 2022, as a suspected then nine-year-old, she was noticeably still being dressed as a child. In her first picture inspecting the Hwasong missile with her father, she was clad in a white fluffy fleece. Her childlike appearance has changed dramatically over the years, having progressed into a phase South Korean outlets have branded “Little Ri”, which mimicked her mum’s style by 2023.
She has been clad in hats, gloves and coats, and had her hair styled in specific fashion as to mimic the choices taken by her mum to a significant extent.
Three phases of styling
Personal branding research institute Jium & Gitdeum split her style phases into three following careful study of her public appearances.
Those phases started with her childlike clothing era, which lasted from November 2022 to August 2023, and was followed from September 2023 to the first few months of 2024 by clothing styled very much in her mother’s image. From the second half of 2024 to now, the institute has concluded her style expresses a “full-scale” succession narrative.
Her public appearances in recent months, while sparing, have been telling through the way she has been dressed – with sharp suits, smart shoes, sunglasses and even leather jackets like her father’s – becoming key style choices.
Horse on parade
Style cues have also been detected outside of Kim herself and on her personal horse, a steed introduced during the 75th Korean People’s Army founding anniversary parade in February 2023. The “finest steed most beloved by the respected child” was dressed up in style during the parade, in a full suit resembling her father’s
The unnamed animal had gold, elaborately designed decorations attached to it that, naturally, had it set apart from any of the other horses on display.
Critically, however, the decorations evoked the style of other horses used by Kim and his younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, during a similar display in October 2009. During the Paektu Mountain cavalry march that year, analysts keeping a close eye on North Korea’s top brass noted, the ornate decorations put the supreme leader and his sister apart from their surrounding military chiefs.
The statement is believed to be one of bloodline status that cemented the riders as being the heirs to their nation – status that appears to have been extended to Kim’s daughter.
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