Who is Kim Ju Ae? The teenager who could be North Korea's next leader

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is appearing to take steps to name his daughter as his official successor.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it believes Kim Ju Ae, who is thought to be around 13 years old, is already providing input on policy matters, suggesting she may be being touted as a future leader. The teenager has been increasingly visible over the last year, attending missile launches alongside her father and, in 2025, at China's "Victory Day" parade, which marked her international debut.

The NIS said it will now look to see whether she attends the upcoming Workers' Party Congress and how she is presented at the party's biggest political conference, including whether she receives an official title. "In the past, the NIS described Ju Ae as being 'in study as successor' but today the expression used was that she 'was in the stage of being internally appointed successor'," South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters following a closed-door briefing on 12 February.

If she does become leader, it would extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation. Who is Kim Ju Ae? Apart from her age and name, not much else is known about Kim Ju Ae, and even those details are unconfirmed.

While North Korean state media has never published her name, it does refer to her as Kim Jong Un's "most beloved" or "respected" child. South Korean media has previously speculated that she is the leader's second of three children, and that the first child is a son.

However, analysts have questioned the credibility of the reports. North Korea, which is one of the world's most secretive nations, has not confirmed whether Ju Ae has any siblings.

It is thought she is the child whom US basketball star Dennis Rodman called Mr Kim's baby daughter after his trip to the capital Pyongyang in 2013. Surprise reveal Ju Ae made her first public appearance in November 2022, when she watched a long-range missile test launch with her father.

It came as a huge surprise to foreign experts as neither Kim Jong Un nor his father Kim Jong Il were mentioned in North Korean state media before they became adults. Following her sixth public appearance in 2023, a North Korea analyst told Sky News there was a "theme" emerging.

Jean H Lee, who set up the Associated Press news agency's first bureau in North Korea, said the events she has been attending tend to involve "weapons and missiles". She said the most striking images of Ju Ae were from when she attended a military banquet marking the 75th anniversary of the country's army in February 2023.

"When you look at these pictures she's front and centre. She is there.

It's like this tableau of father, mother, daughter. And I think what people noticed, of course, first and foremost was, 'oh my gosh, he's presenting his daughter'.

What does that mean?.