The appearance of Kim Jong-un's daughter in China ahead of Xi Jinping's "victory day" parade in Beijing has added to speculation that she is preparing to become North Korea's first female ruler.
Photos released by North Korean state media showed Kim Yu-ae, who is believed to be in her early teens, getting off her father's armored train in the Chinese capital, where she was received by Chinese officials at the start of her debut on the international stage.
But Ju-ae, whose name and age the regime has never publicly confirmed, is no stranger to the spotlight, having accompanied Kim on numerous official tasks around North Korea, including ballistic missile test launches and, most recently, the opening of Wonsan Kalma, a resort on the country's east coast.
If, as many analysts believe, Ju-ae is her father's favorite successor, she would become the fourth member of the Kim family to rule North Korea since its founding by her great-grandfather, Kim Il-sung, in 1948.
According to a 2017 report by South Korea's intelligence service, Kim and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, have three children: a boy born in 2010, a girl born in 2013 thought to be Ju-ae and, in 2017, a child whose gender has not been confirmed.
In Beijing, a smiling Yu-ae, dressed in a navy blue suit, was seen standing behind her father as he got off their train after a one-day trip from Pyongyang, at the start of their first overseas trip together.