Kim Jong Un’s 13-Year-Old Daughter Vs His Ruthless Sister: Succession Drama Loading In North Korea

Last Updated:February 15, 2026, 15:43 IST

The likely faceoff is between the 13-year-old daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Ju Ae, and his ruthless sister, Kim Yo-jong

A new season of succession drama is loading, not on any streaming platform but in North Korea.

The likely faceoff is between the 13-year-old daughter and heir apparent of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Ju Ae, and his ruthless sister, Kim Yo-jong.

Who rules North Korea?

Since its foundation in 1948, North Korea has been ruled by male members of the Kim family, beginning with the country’s founder Kim Il Sung and followed by his son, Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Un was just 26 when he was officially named heir during a 2010 party conference, two years after Kim Jong Il suffered a debilitating stroke. Following his father’s death in December 2011, he was abruptly thrust into the throne with relatively little preparation.

Some analysts suggest that Kim Jong Un’s decision to debut his daughter early possibly reflects his own experience of being rushed into power.

Successor decided?

South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday that it believes the teenage daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is close to being designated as the country’s future leader as he moves to extend the family dynasty to a fourth generation. The assessment by the Intelligence Service comes as North Korea is preparing to hold its biggest political conference later this month, where Kim is expected to outline his major policy goals for the next five years and take steps to tighten his authoritarian grip, according to an AP report.

In a closed-door briefing, NIS officials said they are closely monitoring whether Kim’s daughter appears with him before thousands of delegates at the upcoming Workers’ Party Congress, said lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting.

South Korean officials had initially expressed doubt that she could be chosen as a North Korean leader, citing the country’s deeply conservative culture and tradition of male-dominated leadership. But her increasingly prominent appearances in state media have prompted a reassessment.

Who is Kim Ju Ae?

First appearing in public at a long-range missile test in November 2022, Kim Ju Ae has since accompanied her father to an increasing number of events, including weapons tests, military parades and factory openings. She travelled with him to Beijing last September for Kim’s first summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in six years on the sidelines of a World War II event.

Speculation about her political future intensified last month when she joined her parents on a New Year’s Day visit to Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a sacred family mausoleum displaying the embalmed bodies of her late grandfather and great-grandfather, the country’s first- and second-generation leaders. Some experts saw the visit as the clearest sign yet that she’s positioned to be the heir to her 42-year-old father.

“In the past, (NIS) described Kim Ju Ae as being in the midst of ‘successor training.’ What was notable today is that they used the term ‘successor-designate stage,’ a shift that’s quite significant," Lee said.

According to Lee, the agency cited her growing presence at high-profile military events, her inclusion in the family visit to Kumsusan, and signs that Kim Jong Un was beginning to seek her input on certain policy matters.

Despite her increased visibility in propaganda, North Korean state media have never published the name of Kim Jong Un’s daughter, only referring to her as his “respected" or “most beloved" child.

The belief that she is named Kim Ju Ae is based on an account by former NBA star Dennis Rodman, in which he recalled holding Kim Jong Un’s baby daughter during a trip to Pyongyang in 2013. South Korean intelligence officials believe she was born sometime that year.

In 2023, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that Kim Jong Un and his wife also likely have an older son and a younger third child whose gender is unknown.

Who is Kim Yo-jong?

Kim Yo-jong is a high-ranking North Korean politician and the younger sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. Often described as the second most powerful person in North Korea, she serves as a key advisor to her brother and a primary architect of the regime’s public image and foreign policy.

She is the Deputy Department Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK). In this role, she manages her brother’s public persona and state “idolisation projects".

Since September 2021, she has been a member of the State Affairs Commission (SAC): , North Korea’s highest executive body. She frequently issues official statements in her own name, often using aggressive and vitriolic rhetoric to denounce South Korea and the United States. In 2023, she was famously dubbed “the most dangerous woman in the world" in a biography by scholar Sung-Yoon Lee.

In 2018 Winter Olympics, she made a historic visit to Pyeongchang, South Korea, becoming the first member of the ruling Kim dynasty to cross the border since the Korean War.

She accompanied Kim Jong Un to major diplomatic meetings, including the 2018 and 2019 summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and the 2023 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She is the youngest child of former leader Kim Jong Il and his consort Ko Yong-hui. Like her brother, she reportedly studied at public schools in Bern, Switzerland, under a pseudonym (“Pak Mi-hyang") in the late 1990s before earning a computer science degree from Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang.

She is believed to be married to Choe Song, the son of high-ranking official Choe Ryong-hae, and is reported to have two children.

Due to her direct descent from the “Paektu bloodline," she is often considered a potential successor should her brother be incapacitated. However, recent state media focus on Kim Jong Un’s young daughter, Kim Ju Ae, has shifted some speculation toward a future intergenerational power struggle.

‘Power struggle probable’: The succession drama

Rah Jong-yil, the former South Korean ambassador to the UK and deputy director of Seoul’s intelligence service, told The Telegraph that Ju-ae could face opposition from Kim Yo-jong, her ambitious and ruthless aunt.

Yo-jong, 38, is said to be planning to seize power should the dictator die or be incapacitated. This does not bode well for Ju-ae in a dynasty that has never been shy about assassinating its political rivals, according to Jong-yil.

“It depends on the timing, but I believe if Kim Yo-jong believed that she had a chance of becoming the top leader then she would take it," Jong-yil said. “For her, there are no reasons to refrain from putting into effect her own political project," he said, adding that a power struggle “is probable".

Two years after Kim took over from his father in December 2011, he had Jang Song-thaek, his uncle and mentor, arrested on charges of committing “anti-party, counter-revolutionary, factional acts".

With AP inputs

News explainers Kim Jong Un’s 13-Year-Old Daughter Vs His Ruthless Sister: Succession Drama Loading In North Korea

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