A North Korean defector has spoken out about the secrecy surrounding Kim Jong Un’s daughter, warning that ordinary citizens risk danger if they even try to learn about the ruling family.
Kim Yumi, who fled to South Korea after pandemic restrictions destroyed her family’s fishing business, said that she had never heard of Kim Ju Ae until the state introduced her at a missile launch site in November 2022. The defector explained that most North Koreans remain deliberately ignorant of the Kim family’s private lives to protect themselves.
“Ordinary people know absolutely nothing about private lives of the Kim family,” she said. “They don’t really try to know about it and don’t pay attention to it because doing so could put them in danger.”
Kim Yumi and her husband made the decision to leave after COVID-19 rules crippled their livelihood. She told AP that their children’s future drove the choice: “My husband and I didn’t want our children to live under a fourth-generation dictatorship. As parents, we thought the best thing we could do for our children was to give them freedom.”
The girl now dubbed the “world’s most dangerous 13-year-old” has become an increasingly visible presence in state media. Western analysts note that each appearance alongside her father carries heavy symbolism, given how Kim Jong Un himself was elevated through similar public exposure before inheriting power from Kim Jong Il in 2011.
Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, said in 2025 that the grooming theory remains unproven but grows more plausible with each appearance. “For all we know, this is just him doting on a favourite child,” he said. “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.”
The teenager is believed to be one of three children Kim Jong Un shares with wife Ri Sol-ju though her siblings have never appeared in public and their names remain unknown. The outside world learned of her existence largely by accident, through former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who held her as an infant during his 2013 visit to Pyongyang.
North Korean state television has broadcast multiple events showing father and daughter together, and the regime has even issued postage stamps featuring both. Kim Yumi interpreted these displays as deliberate signals about succession, telling AP that whenever state TV showed the youngster with her father, “it felt like a clear message was being sent, that she would take over his position.”
The speculation carries global stakes. Kim Jong Un is only 42, but recent false death rumors highlighted how destabilizing a sudden transition could prove, particularly given Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal and current tensions with South Korea.