Kim Jong-un’s daughter: What we know about 10-year-old ‘heir apparent’ Kim Ju-ae

Believed to be his second child, Ju-ae is the only one of Kim’s children to have appeared in public

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s decision to appear alongside his daughter at a number of major state events this week has led to mounting speculation that she is being groomed as his heir.

Throughout this week the leader of the hermit kingdom has been pictured at events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean military.

At a number of the events, including a long-awaited military parade on Wednesday night, Mr Kim was accompanied by his second child Kim Ju-ae as well as his wife, Ri Sol-ju.

Ju-ae, believed to be 10 years old, was seen in several sets of photos released by state media, dining at a banquet with top military officials on Tuesday, sitting with him as he smoked in a drawing room and then walking alongside Mr Kim at the parade.

This was at least her fourth public appearance as chronicled by North Korea’s tightly-controlled state media.

The official newspaper of the North Korean ruling party, the Rodong Sinmun, described the child as the centre of attention alongside her father.

She is the first of Mr Kim’s children to be photographed in public with her father, as state media had previously avoided even revealing the identity members of the leader’s immediate family.

Mr Kim is believed to have three children, including a son aged 13 and another child aged six, about whom very little is known including their gender.

Ju-ae was seen attending a missile launch with Mr Kim last year, although she was not named in state media at the time.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un with his daughter Ju-ae (KCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Image)

Prior to that launch, the only confirmation of her existence had come from former American basketball player Dennis Rodman, who spent time with the supreme leader's family during his visit to North Korea in 2013.

South Korean intelligence officials believe she is the daughter identified as Ju-ae by the former American basketball player.

"For all we know this is just him doting on a favourite child, but the more that she shows up, the more it seems that she's either being fully groomed for leadership or at least floated as a possibility," Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The speculation around Mr Kim’s children is particularly intense because the country has historically been led as a hereditary dictatorship. Though it is not a monarchy, Mr Kim is the third generation of his family to rule North Korea after its founding leader Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il.

State media reports from this week referred to Ju-ae as the “beloved” and “respected” daughter of Mr Kim as photographs showed her walking hand in hand with her father, while her mother trailed behind.

Professor Richey argued that Ju-ae’s carefully chosen public appearances at military events, particularly ones involving the country’s missile arsenal, are designed to intertwine the image of the Kim family and North Korea’s nuclear weapons. “[It is] another way of signalling that denuclearisation is totally off the table,” he said.

Rachel Minyoung Lee, a North Korea expert with the Vienna-based Open Nuclear Network, said it is premature to conclude that Ju-ae is being prepared for leadership.

She argues the child’s presence exclusively at military events is designed to send a message to the North Korean public that the development of nuclear weapons is for the security of future generations.

"The North Korean leadership probably has to make the case for why the country has to keep investing in national defence in spite of the deteriorating economic conditions," Ms Lee said.

"And no propaganda can be more potent than the leader’s young daughter to convey that message."