SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Ju Ae, the preteen daughter of all-powerful North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is being immortalized on a set of stamps issued by the secretive state. The stamps, made public Tuesday, depict Ms. Kim surrounded by military brass, with Dad by her side and an intercontinental ballistic missile as backdrop.
Couple that with unconfirmed reports last week that all other North Korean females called Ju Ae are being ordered to change their names, and the rumors have been flying that young Ms. Kim, believed to be 9 or 10, is being groomed already to succeed her father, grandfather and great-grandfather as the next head of the hermetic Kim dynasty.
But despite the media buzz surrounding Ju Ae and her aunt — Kim Jong-un’s prominent and powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, veteran North Korea watchers caution that the chances of any woman actually ascending to the pinnacle of power in Pyongyang are slim.
“North Korea is a very male-dominated society,” said Choi Jin-wook, who heads the Seoul-based Center for Strategic and Cultural Studies. “They say men and women are equal, and they have been emphasizing equality since they needed labor in the 1950s, but in reality, among high-rank officials, women are very, very rare.”
“If we look at the past leadership of North Korea, there were some smart ladies working with it — but few,” added Joanne Kim, president of the Korea Heritage Education Institute. “It is male dominant, and they depend on violence and physical and military power.”
Beyond the cultural biases, it is widely believed within South Korea’s community of Pyongyangologists that Mr. Kim has a secret son. The belief is that the son — even his name is unknown, though he is thought to be a few years older than Ju Ae — is actually the likely heir to the Kim throne, while being kept out of sight and danger.
Kim Ju Ae made her public debut holding her father’s hand during a November 2022 missile test and is routinely described in the state-controlled media as Mr. Kim’s “beloved” and “respected” daughter. But her real role may be to serve as cover, deflecting attention from her brother and duping the North’s many adversaries and the global media.
No queen for the Kimdom
Korean society, both traditional and modern, has not elevated many females to positions of real power.
“The last ruling Korean queen dates back to the Silla Dynasty,” said the Korea Heritage Education Institute’s Ms. Kim.
Silla was a kingdom that fell in the 10th century, and in the succeeding dynasties that ruled the peninsula up to the 20th century, “queens were consorts — wives of kings,” Ms. Kim said. As such they were only able to exercise power “behind the screens.”
Even in today’s democratic, cosmopolitan South Korea, the world’s tenth-largest economy, gender equality is problematic: It was ranked 99th out of 146 nations in the World Economic Forum’s 2022 Gender Gap Index. Since the end of World War II, South Korea has had just one female president — Park Geun-hye, whose administration was cut short when she was impeached and removed from office four years after her election in 2013.
Matters look even grimmer in the post-communist, ultra-militarized, neo-monarchy north of the DMZ.
Murderous feuds stalked ancient Korean palaces, and paranoia and risk stalks Pyongyang’s elite. Mr. Kim had his powerful uncle, Jang Song Thaek, executed for disloyalty in 2013, and his China-based half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, assassinated in Malaysia in 2017 for reasons unknown.
Granting a successor — even a daughter — such a high profile at a young age would be high risk. “Why would Kim be putting a target on his daughter’s back?” asked a retired South Korean military source.
Hence the likelihood of a different successor: Kim’s rumored son.
The secret son
“As a boy is a much more serious candidate than Ju Ae, Kim Jong-un does not what to show him,” said Mr. Choi.
Mr. Kim gained international perspective via schooling in Switzerland. Some Pyongyang watchers believe that his son, too, may be overseas, for reasons of education and discretion.
“There is a lot of speculation about why he is in the shadows, and one is that he is not in North Korea, but is under diplomatic cover, perhaps in Sweden or Switzerland, or in China, Hong Kong or even Moscow,” said Go Myong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Asan Institute. “Protection may be one reason. … I think Ju Ae’s prominence is more the Kim regime is playing international media.”
With solid sourcing of the opaque North Korean regime hard to come by, yet another rumor is that the son may not be the child of Ri Sol Ju, Mr. Kim’s wife, said Mr. Go. If true, the exposure of infidelity would clash with Mr. Kim’s carefully scrubbed public image.
‘Normalizing’ North Korea
Though state-sponsored historical accounts give some space to the mother of dynasty founder Kim Il Sung, and subsequently on the sister of his son Kim Jong Il, neither were depicted at the center of famous events. The high public profiles of three women in Kim Jong-un’s inner circle — his wife, sister and daughter — is a marked departure from past practice.
Driving Mr. Kim may be his overseas experience and a desire to “normalize” his regime.
His father, Kim Jong Il, ruled in virtual secrecy, undercutting the power of official state bodies. Kim Jong Il also had multiple paramours — fathering several children out of wedlock.
By contrast, Kim Jong-un has returned a range of duties and powers to party bodies. He has granted his wife. Mrs. Ri, a first lady-type profile, bringing her along on official visits to sites such as children’s hospitals.
“I think he has normalized his managerial style to the North Korean people,” said Mr. Go. “Kim Jong Il had many wives and girlfriends, so Kim Jong-un wanted to give the people a sense of stability by having an ‘official’ wife.”
But while Mrs. Ri’s profile is high, in recent appearances, she has been seen behind her daughter. Meanwhile, global media has been more entranced by Mr. Kim’s unusually outspoken younger sister.
Kim Yo Jong first rose to prominence as an envoy to Seoul prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Those diplomatic maneuvers paved the way for the 2018 Singapore summit between Mr. Kim and President Donald Trump.
But after the Washington diplomacy fizzled following a subsequent summit in Vietnam in 2091, Kim Yo Jong has transitioned to a role as the regime’s “bad cop,” unleashing frequent, well-covered tirades against Seoul and Washington in state media.
Her prominence, some say, points to Mr. Kim’s paranoia.
“Yo Jong is powerful as Kim cannot trust members of the existing establishment,” suggested Mr. Go. “So he has to rely on blood relatives.”
But blood does not overcome gender when it comes to succession. “Yo Jong can be empowered as she has little chance of succeeding him,” said Mr. Go. “She is limited in her potential, as a woman.”
Alternatively, Kim Ju Ae’s soaring profile may be designed to eclipse her aunt’s — in the last three months, Kim Yo Jong’s visibility has plunged.
“If Yo Jong keeps doing as she has been doing, many elites will follow her, so Kim Jong-un is afraid of that,” said Mr. Choi. “This is a message to power elites: ‘Look: I have children, and Yo Jong is helping me, but don’t follow her too much.’”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.