Koreans Wait for First Queen in 1100 Years

Mark O'Neill March 06, 2026 12:06

The last female ruler of Korea was Queen Jinseong, the final monarch of the Silla dynasty from 887 to 897. Soon the North Koreas may have a new queen – the first for 1,100 years.

The two contenders are the sister and daughter of dictator Kim Jong-un – Kim Yo-jong, 38, and Kim Ju-ae, 14. Both are fierce ladies – and on the mountain there can only be one tigress, as a Chinese proverb says.

On February 12, members of the South Korean parliament were startled to hear officials of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) tell them that the elder Kim had selected his daughter as his successor.

“The NIS believes that Kim Ju-ae has now entered the stage of being designated as successor,” parliament member Lee Seong-kwen told reporters.

Her father, 43, is overweight and smokes and drinks heavily. Defectors from North Korea who worked for him describe lavish parties at his palaces with tables laden with imported food and liquor – while ordinary citizens live on rationed food. Kim started smoking at 15 and favours Yves St Laurent menthol cigarettes.

The North Korean legal code created by the Kim family requires the country to be ruled by a “person of the Paektu bloodline”, a direct descendant of the country’s founder Kim Il-sung.

North Korea is a country like no other. It was created in 1945 by the Soviet Army who occupied the northern half of Korea after the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945. The Americans occupied the southern half.

Josef Stalin selected Kim Il-sung, an officer in the Red Army then 33, as ruler of the new country. He wanted someone he could control. Kim arrived in Wonsan in September 1945 after 26 years in exile. He was fluent in Russian and Chinese, but his Korean was poor.

The new ruler introduced the same Marxist-Leninist political and economic systems as in the new Communist countries of Eastern Europe. His objective was self-sufficiency and the least contact possible with the non-Communist world.

But what the Soviets – and everyone else – had not anticipated was a new royal dynasty similar to those that ruled Korea from 1,000 B.C. until 1910, when it was abolished by the Japanese.

Kim Il-sung died in 1994 and declared “Eternal President”. He was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il, who ruled until his death in 2011. He was succeeded by Kim Jong-un, then aged just 28. He is the fifth child of his father.

The struggles within the family for power and succession were and are similar to those in earlier Korean dynasties and in Chinese and European royal houses.

Jong-il should have been succeeded by his eldest son Kim Jong-nan. But he was murdered at Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13, 2017 by four North Korean agents, on the orders of his younger brother.

In December 2013, Kim executed his uncle and mentor Chang Song-thaek. In an event carried on state television, armed guards took him out of an official meeting. He “admitted to acts of treachery”

Kim had both men killed to prevent any potential challenge to his power.

Only four Communist states remain – China, Vietnam, Cuba and North Korea. The first two have retained the Marxist-Leninist political system but have radically reformed their economies, with great success. In Cuba today, private companies employ 1.6 million people, 40 per cent of the workforce.

No Communist state has established a comparable family dynasty

But North Korea has stuck to the Soviet state monopoly of the economy and minimal trade with the outside world, except China and Russia.

It uses the latest KGB surveillance methods to control its people and blocks access to foreign television, radio and Internet. It severely restricts its people from leaving the country and contact with foreigners.

In his writings, Karl Marx never envisaged a single dynasty managing his economic system. “Monarchy is feudal, anti-democratic and authoritarian,” he wrote.

Who will succeed Kim Jong-un? Both the ladies are well qualified. Since November 2022, Ju-ae has been seen with his father at important public events. Defectors have said that she has two siblings, but none has been seen nor mentioned in official media. Most experts believe she is the only child of her father.

Her aunt is the youngest child of Kim Jong-il and his second mistress. She studied at the same school in Switzerland as brother Kim Jong-un, both under false names. She holds senior government posts and has since 2026 been a full member of the ruling Politburo.

A study of dynastic history tells us that, to obtain supreme power, nothing can be excluded. The two tigresses must be prepared.

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.