Kim Jong-un has revealed two more members of his family to the world – and one of them could be the next leader of North Korea.
His niece and nephew were seen walking hand-in-hand with their mum, Kim Yo-jong – the tyrant’s sister – at Pyongyang’s New Year’s Eve bash.
Until now, the leader’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, was the only member of her generation in the public eye, fuelling speculation that she would be the next leader.
But patriarchal North Korea has never had a female leader, and now experts are wondering if the nephew – the only known male of his generation – could be the true heir.
Michael Madden, founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, said the role could only be filled by someone from the bloodline of Kim Il-sung, the nation’s founder.
He said: ‘With this event we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Kim Yo-jong has a son.
‘This means she has produced a legitimate male heir to the Mount Paektu revolutionary leadership of Kim Il-sung.
‘We don’t if Kim Jong-un actually has a son and there is no credible available intelligence to establish that he does.
‘But Kim Yo-jong has a son who, given his family lineage, is certainly a credible candidate for hereditary succession in North Korea.
‘It belies perceptions that Kim Ju-ae is hereditary successor.’
North Korea’s ruling family has always been shrouded in secrecy, and analysts are often reliant on regime propaganda to confirm the existence of its members.
New Year’s Eve therefore offers a rare glimpse behind the curtain.
Mr Madden said the annual extravaganza had become ‘a family event at which North Korean elites bring their wives or their children’.
And he was in no doubt that it was a deliberate choice to debut the niece and nephew.
He said: ‘With a regime and state media environment like North Korea, we only see what they let us see.’
Kim Jong-un has been rumoured to have two other children, including a son, but they’ve never been brought into the public eye.
In the case of the boy, one spymaster in neighbouring South Korea claimed that this was because he was too ‘pale and thin’ for North Korean tastes.
One media outlet in South Korea, NK News, even suggested that the two children at the New Year’s Eve celebration could be Kim Jong-un’s other kids, but admitted this was ‘less likely’.
The duo weren’t glimpsed again on TV, and Kim Yo-jong was later spotted in the royal box, apparently without them.
In any case, the leader was accompanied only by his daughter for the occasion.
And Mr Madden maintains that she is still the likeliest successor to her father.
He said: ‘I still think Kim Ju-ae is the front runner and there is most certainly space for a female leader of North Korea.
‘But with Kim Yo-jong’s children we have at least two more individuals who will become top elites and are future senior officials in the North Korean regime.
‘So the regime is signalling that these are future North Korean elites.’
Mr Madden – a fellow of the Stimson Center in Washington DC – said Pyongyang was also sending a message to the next US president, Donald Trump.
He said: ‘In 2018, Kim Jong-un told former South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, that he was a husband and father, and would not do anything to bring nuclear destruction to the Korean peninsula.
‘So, by bringing her own children to a public event, Kim Yo-jong may be subtly reiterating that point to external observers – including the Trump administration in the US and the next leadership in South Korea.’
He added: ‘In a general context, bringing out her children is part of normalising the North Korean regime.
‘In this way, it becomes less opaque, less mysterious, and relatively transparent, and it reduces the median perception in the world that North Korean political culture is quixotic and weird.
‘Kim Yo-jong is one of the leading drivers and advisers in this long-term process of making North Korea a more traditional authoritarian regime.’
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) is now trying to verify the relationship between Kim Yo-jong and the children.
‘We are conducting a detailed analysis while keeping the possibility open,’ it said in a statement.
The NIS has previously suggested Kim Yo-jong may have children, whose presumed ages are a good match for those of the kids caught on camera.
