Every New Year, North Korea’s ruling elite gathers at Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to pay respects to the embalmed bodies of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the first two leaders of the secretive state. At the centre usually stands Kim Jong Un.

Such rituals, conducted with senior officials and other Kim family members, are highly choreographed and among the most important in the calendar of the world’s only hereditary communist state. This year, though, there was a slight variation: Kim’s daughter Kim Ju Ae was pictured at the very centre, between her father and mother Ri Sol Ju.

Her positioning at the heart of the family appeared to be the latest stage in a process of introducing her as a possible future heir to North Koreans and the world.

Kim Ju Ae, who is believed to be 13 or 14 years old, has appeared at intercontinental ballistic missile launches, ceremonial parades showcasing the navy and factory inspections. She has driven a tank and fired guns, and senior generals have been photographed kneeling to brief her.

Her “sustained public appearances as well as the evolution in her public profile in recent years seem to point to a deliberate, long-term effort to prime the North Korean people for fourth-generation hereditary succession”, said Rachel Minyoung Lee of the Washington-based Stimson Center.

Many North Korea experts, including South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, now conclude that Kim Jong Un is building his daughter up for leadership. Kim is still in his early forties, but it is believed that the early start is a result of his own rushed, bloody rise to absolute power in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Kim Jong Un was Kim Jong Il’s third son, and had spent part of his childhood at an international school in Switzerland. While his father viewed him as having the character needed for leadership, he was completely unknown to the North Korean public — until Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke in 2008. This necessitated quick preparation for succession in 2011.

“Kim Jong Un had to undergo accelerated training and build connections within such a short period of three years leading up to his father’s death. As a result, he struggled, and there were people around him who disregarded him,” said Cheong Seong-Chang of the Sejong Institute in Seoul.

During the early years of Kim Jong Un’s rule, his uncle Jang Song Thaek was often seen as the real power behind the throne. Kim ultimately consolidated control through what Cheong calls a “reign of terror”. This included Jang’s 2013 execution for allegedly plotting a coup and the dramatic assassination of Kim’s own half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in 2017.

Victor Cha of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said Kim was “trying to improve on his own transition, which did not go very smoothly. His effort to expose Kim Ju Ae is the clearest manifestation of his own anxieties from when he took over.”

The world first became aware of Kim Ju Ae in 2013 when American basketball player Dennis Rodman revealed he had held her on a visit to North Korea. Rodman described Kim Jong Un as a “good dad” with a “beautiful family”. It is not confirmed if the North Korean leader has other children.

Kim Ju Ae began appearing regularly in state media in recent years. According to research by Sejong Institute’s Cheong, she made 49 public appearances between 2022 and the end of 2025.

Initially, most of these revolved around the armed forces, to “project an image of a strong female leader capable of commanding the North Korean military”, Cheong said. In 2025 though, there was an equal split between these and civilian-themed events, suggesting an attempt to broaden her image.

She has frequently appeared in a black double-breasted leather jacket, a garment that Seoul-based image consultant Jeong Yeon-ah said was part of “a colour strategy deliberately intended to emphasise the image of a powerful political leader”.

Jeong, who has advised South Korean presidential candidates on how to dress, said the regime was also “elevating Ju Ae’s status by releasing photos showing her doing things her father has previously done at staged events, such as firing a rifle”.

The language used by state media also signals authority. Kim Ju Ae has frequently been called the leader’s “beloved” or “respected” daughter.

In 2024, the official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, referred to her and Kim Jong Un as “great persons of guidance”, placing her in a category associated with the ruling lineage and leadership. She has also appeared alone alongside her father in official photographs. This, Jeong said, reinforces the impression that she occupies a status distinct from other members of the ruling family.

Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong, who has become known for her colourful invective against South Korea and the US, is by contrast typically seen in a more assistant-like role, carrying a folder or standing to the side of her brother. Analysts consider it unlikely she could be a serious contender for power unless Kim Jong Un were to die young.

Kim Ju Ae’s gender could be a complicating factor. “Conventional wisdom — that North Korea is a very traditional, Confucian society — tells us that North Korea is not ready for a female leader,” said Stimson Center’s Lee.

However, “we need to remember that North Korea is changing, too, like any other society . . . [and the regime] does have a powerful, well-established propaganda apparatus to prime the public for a female leader”, she added.

Korean history is not without female leadership figures. CSIS’s Cha references Queen Min, who de facto ruled the Joseon kingdom in the late 19th century while her husband Gojong sat on the throne. And, more recently, South Korea had a female president, Park Geun-hye — herself the daughter of a former president.

“Everybody of prominence [around Kim] right now is a woman — the foreign minister, the wife, the sister [Kim Yo Jong], the daughter. I don’t think it’s because he’s some sort of women’s rights activist,” said Cha. “If there were a young man in that group, everybody would be focusing on him. But the fact that they’re all women probably makes him feel secure that nobody will see them as a threat to him.”

For some observers, the lack of any formal title for Kim Ju Ae necessitates caution in the succession narrative. For Lee Woo-young of South Korea’s Kyungnam University, the only thing that can be truly concluded is that Kim Jong Un is a “ddal-babo” — daughter-crazy dad. “In order to have clearer signals, she should have a position,” he added.

Kim Jong Un only received a formal title — “Young General” — in state propaganda from 2009. He had never served in the military and was officially appointed a general in 2010. Kim Jong Il died just one year later, and Kim Jong Un ascended to power.

For the time being, ambiguity over titles may also prove to be the point. “We’ll never get a definitive. As soon as he announces that, he becomes a lame duck,” said Cha.

Additional reporting by Kang Buseong and illustration by Carolina Vargas

The graphic has been amended since first publication to remove a wrongly identified picture