North Korea: Kim’s daughter pays her first homage at the family tomb
North Korea: Images released by the North’s official media on Friday showed Ju-ae, the teenage daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, paying her first homage at the family tomb beside her father.
Growing rumors about her involvement in the possible succession of the North Korean communist dynasty coincided with her first documented visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the late father and grandparents of the North Korean leader are buried.
On New Year’s Day, Kim, his wife, and Ju-ae, together with other government and party figures, paid a visit to the family tomb.
State media images showed the Kim family in the first row, although the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) did not report that Ju-ae had visited the family tomb. With her parents standing on each side, Ju-ae was seen in the middle.
Ju-ae, who first surfaced in North Korean official media in 2022, made his first known visit to the family tomb.According to the KCNA, which uses the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, “all the visitors made a firm pledge to fulfill their responsibility and duty in the vanguard of accomplishing the sacred cause for the eternal prosperity and development of the great DPRK and the promotion of the people’s well-being, true to the ideas and leadership of Kim Jong Un with single-minded loyalty.”
The embalmed remains of Kim Jong-il, a previous North Korean leader and Kim’s father, and Kim Il-sung, the founder of the North and Kim’s grandfather, are kept at the mausoleum.
The last time Kim Jong-un went to the family tomb was on New Year’s Day in 2023. Since assuming power in 2012, he has honored his father and grandparents on the first day of every year; however, he did not make these trips in 2018, 2024, or 2025, according to the Yonhap news agency.
When questioned about the visit’s importance, Seoul’s unification ministry revealed that it was Kim and his daughter’s first public visit to the family tomb.Since this is the first visit of this kind, we are keeping a careful eye on it,” Chang Yoon-jeong, the ministry’s deputy spokeswoman, said at a routine news conference on Friday.We shall keep a careful eye on Chairman Kim Jong-un’s daughter’s actions.”
Kim, along with his wife and daughter, went to a massive celebration performance in Pyongyang on Thursday to commemorate the start of a new year.
Ju-ae was seen sitting next to him at the occasion in video footage that was broadcast by the state-run Korean Central Television. Wearing a leather coat that matched her father’s, she was seen kissing him on the cheek after the New Year’s countdown was over and holding his hand as they watched the show.