North Korea Dresses Kim Ju Ae in Luxe Outfits to Project Maturity and Authority

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's daughter Ju Ae has appeared in increasingly sophisticated outfits that analysts say signal her grooming as successor.

A photo from November 2022 showed the then-nine-year-old Ju Ae beside her father in front of a towering intercontinental ballistic missile. She wore black trousers, a white padded jacket and had her long hair tied back, marking her debut in state propaganda.

Since then, her hairstyles have grown more elaborate and her clothing more elegant. South Korea's spy agency believes Kim has selected her as successor due to her rising profile at a young age. Now 13, Ju Ae has joined her father at missile launches, military parades and overseas trips.

Analysts point to her fashion choices, including leathers, furs and a "rooster" hairstyle, as further evidence of her preparation to lead. Her outfits likely come from the government's Propaganda and Agitation Department.

Ju Ae has worn formal suits and skirts resembling those of her mother, Ri Sol Ju. "As Ju Ae is still very young, her age could be seen as a potential weakness for a future leader. It appears the regime is dressing her in formal outfits similar to those worn by her mother as a way to mask her youth and project a more mature image," Sejong Institute deputy director Cheong Seong-chang told BBC Korean.

She has also donned leather jackets, described by Cheong as "clothing that is both strong in impression and casual," suitable for visits to military bases and rugged sites. These match her father's preference for black leather jackets and trench coats.

North Korean leaders have used "image replication" to build legitimacy. Early in his rule, Kim Jong Un dressed like his grandfather Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder who led for more than 45 years and is revered as a deity.

"The Propaganda and Agitation Department played a significantly important role in orchestrating a series of processes that naturally transferred respect for Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Un," Cheong said. "It is said that North Korean residents were surprised when Kim Jong Un first appeared. But the reason South Korean experts were also surprised is that the first glimpse of Kim Jong Un looked so much like the young Kim Il Sung. The limitations young Kim Jong Un faced as a successor, such as his lack of experience and age, could be offset solely by the fact that he resembled Kim Il Sung. It got to the point that rumours circulated among North Koreans that Kim Il Sung had been reincarnated."

Ju Ae's Western-style clothing sets her apart from ordinary citizens, Cheong noted. Her repeated leather jackets show the Propaganda and Agitation Department aims to elevate her status. "Wearing clothing made of high-quality leather is a way of showing off one's special status," he said. "Leather clothing is not that common among North Korean residents. Luxury brands, leather jackets and fur coats are precious clothes that can't be worn by ordinary North Koreans."

This contrasts with controls on the public. In 2020, North Korea passed the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act to block external culture. Yet in 2023, state media showed Ju Ae in a black padded jacket from French luxury house Christian Dior, priced at $1,900 (£1,405), again beside her father and a missile.

The next year, she wore a partially see-through blouse that revealed her arms to a residential completion ceremony in Pyongyang. A state video lecture then warned citizens against such hairstyles and outfits as "anti-socialist and non-socialist phenomena that blur the image of the socialist system and eat away at the regime - targets that must be eradicated," a local source told Radio Free Asia.

These cases show the Kim family's exemption from rules binding others. "Although jeans are banned in North Korea as a Western fashion item, Kim Jong Un has appeared wearing them," said Prof. Lee Woo-young of the University of North Korean Studies. "No matter how much they ban foreign culture and even enact laws, North Korea is a place where there is nothing the supreme leader is unable to do."

Some North Koreans still try to emulate the Kims' style despite limited access to outside information. The leader's daughter has emerged as a fashion figure too.

Additional reporting by Hyunjung Kim.