North Korea’s communist dictator Kim Jong-un attended an event at the Russian Embassy last week with his daughter Ju-ae – a move, experts suggested on Monday, that marked her first official diplomatic engagement.
Kim Ju-ae is believed to be between 12 and 13 years old and was first seen in public in 2022 at the testing of a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile. The world first learned of her existence through retired professional basketball player Dennis Rodman, a personal friend of Kim Jong-un’s, who mentioned that the dictator was a “good dad” after visiting Pyongyang in 2013.
North Korea experts have for years speculated that the decision to make the first public image of Kim Ju-ae in state propaganda that of her alongside her father watching an ICBM launch was a signal to the world that she was being groomed as a successor to Kim. The North Korean communist regime is in practice a totalitarian monarchy, founded by Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and maintained by his father Kim Jong-il until his death in 2011. Pyongyang forces its captive population to worship the Kim family as gods and strictly outlaws the practice of any other religion outside of that worship, persecuting Christians with particular hostility.
The event Kim and his daughter attended on May 9 at the Russian embassy in Pyongyang was to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. State media published footage of Kim Ju-ae, in a navy professional suit, sitting in the front row of an audience listening to her father’s address. Images showing Kim delivering his speech with his daughter clearly visible in the foreground of the event were on the front page of the official state newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, on Tuesday afternoon.
The English-language report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the flagship state propaganda outlet in North Korea, described the younger Kim as the “respected daughter” of the nation, while translations of Korean-language coverage of her public appearance referenced her as “most beloved daughter.” Kim has confirmed publicly having only one daughter, though reports throughout the years have suggested he may have as many as three children. The event was the first time that state media used the moniker “most beloved daughter,” which some experts viewed as a potential promotion for the younger Kim.
Kim Jong-un had never before visited the Russian embassy and made reference to that in his address to Russian diplomats there, stating that it took him 80 seconds to drive from his usual offices to the embassy and celebrating that he now had reason to, as Russia has dramatically expanded its diplomatic outreach to North Korea. While Moscow had always been warm to Pyongyang, strongman Vladimir Putin increased efforts to bring North Korea into his orbit – and out of China’s – throughout the past year, signing a mutual defense treaty in Pyongyang with Kim last summer.
Speaking to the U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA), researcher Cho Han-bum described Kim Ju-ae’s appearance as her “debut on the international stage,” a signal that the Kim regime wants international figures to view her as a meaningful part of the region. This also appeared to be conveyed by her seating at the event, next to Russian Ambassador to Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora. Video of her at the event showed her interacting with Russian dignitaries, not merely sitting on the sidelines.
“It formalizes the fact that she is undergoing succession training, both domestically and internationally,” Cho asserted.
“She has now been introduced publicly to the international diplomatic community,” Cho continued. “While this strengthens the impression that she is being groomed as a successor, I don’t think North Korea is in a position where it needs outside backing to solidify this path.”
North Korea’s relationship with Russia has become increasingly important for it diplomatically in the past year following the signing of the mutual defense agreement, which preceded the appearance of North Korean soldiers in the Ukrainian war theater in autumn 2024. Kim referenced North Korea’s contributions to the Russian invasion of that country in his address on May 9 as published by KCNA, comparing the Ukrainian government to Nazi Germany as the Putin regime has for years.
Kim told those assembled that he viewed Ukraine’s attempted counter-invasion of Kursk, a Russian territory, “as something tantamount to an invasion of our own state,” which is why he decided to send troops into the region. He repeatedly referred to Putin as a “comrade” and “most intimate friend.”
“If the henchmen of the United States and the West, with their tacky, defective munitions, attempt another assault on the Russian Federation, our fraternal country,” Kim threatened, “I, according to the corresponding article of the Korea-Russia treaty and its spirit, will unhesitatingly issue an order on using the armed forces.”
Despite the speech marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, Kim did not give any credit to the decisive power in that victory, the United States. Instead he claimed, as Russian propaganda dictates, that only the defunct Soviet Union was responsible for the fall of Adolf Hitler.
“Had great Russia not destroyed fascist Germany, a brutal empire of evil, at the cost of lives of tens of millions of people, there would not have been modern civilization nor our happy life of today,” he claimed. “I say we must never forget that we are happy today thanks to the priceless, self-sacrificing struggle of Russia that saved the world.”
