Who is Kim Ju Ae? The teenager who could be North Korea’s next 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.