A photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, and his daughter, known to the media as Ju-ae, attending a banquet celebrating the 75th founding anniversary of the Korean People's Army (KPA) during a visit to the lodging quarters of KPA General Officers in Pyongyang, North Korea, Feb. 7. EPA-Yonhap

Kim Jong-un's son faces succession hurdles as he lacks resemblance to founder: expertsBy Kang Hyun-kyung

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is known to have a son with his wife, Ri Sol-ju.

According to the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the couple has three children. Their daughter, widely known to the media as Ju-ae, is the second child. The eldest is a son. The gender of their third child is unknown.

Citing sources in North Korea, Choe Su-yong, a retired NIS official, provides a different account of the North Korean leader’s children.

He claimed that Kim has two children with Ri; the eldest is a son and the girl, known as Ju-ae, is the younger. He said Kim has two other children born out of wedlock.

Their accounts, albeit slightly different, have one thing in common: Kim has a son with Ri who is older than their daughter. Since her first public appearance at the launch site of the Hwasong- 17 intercontinental ballistic missile in November last year, Kim’s daughter has drawn media frenzy.

Unlike Kim’s globally known daughter, his son is veiled in mystery. He has never been spotted in public.

Little information is available about his son, triggering speculation about the North Korean leader’s motives behind his decision to appear in public only with his daughter.

Some experts speculate that Kim’s daughter is an heir apparent and the father is helping his daughter hone her leadership skills. But others disagree and say it is too early to predict a successor.

Choe claims Kim’s son doesn’t look good from North Koreans’ standpoint, and his unappealing physical appearance seems to have discouraged Kim from disclosing his son in public.

“Unlike his father or his sister who is plump and well-fed, Kim’s son is said to be pale and thin,” he told The Korea Times, quoting sources in the North. “I heard that his son doesn’t look like his great-grandfather Kim Il-sung at all.”

For the royal family members in North Korea, a physical appearance that resembles Kim Il-sung (1912-1994), the founder of North Korea, is considered an asset in the rise to power.

Kim Jong-un was chosen as a successor to his father, Kim Jong-il, because the younger Kim was aggressive and more like his grandfather than his elder brother Jong-chul, according to Kenji Fujimoto who served as chef for the Kim family for 13 years before he escaped the North in 2001.

In his memoir published in 2003, Fujimoto recounted Kim Jong-chul as being quiet and shy. Several times his father mentioned the older son’s leadership succession, saying he was like a girl and could not make it.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, front, inspects a tree nursery in Gangwon Province in the North's territory in this July 24, 2018 file photo. He wears a wide-brimmed straw hat, which his grandfather Kim Il-sung used to wear frequently when he was alive. Yonhap

Grandson emulating grandfather

Since coming to power in 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong-un has been emulating his grandfather.

He speaks like his grandfather and walks like him too. The younger Kim changed his hairstyle, brandishing a short cut, a look that echoes the late Kim Il-sung.

In a media interview, Hong Soon-kyung, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to the South in 2000, said that the two Kims are very similar.

“The more I see the younger Kim (on TV), the more I feel that he’s just like his grandfather,” he said. “The way he wears clothes, the way he walks, everything about him makes me feel that way. I feel that a young Kim Il-sung is there as I saw the late Kim when I was in North Korea.”

The younger Kim’s endeavor to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather has continued since his rise to power. During a military parade held in June this year, Kim was spotted with a bowler hat and black coat, clothing items his grandfather used to wear when he was young. The grandson was also seen in public several times with a wide-brimmed straw hat when he inspected several different sites, including railway and military facilities. His grandfather frequently wore straw hats.

Kim Seong-min, president of Free North Korea Radio (FNKR), said Kim Jong-un seems to be trying to capitalize on the legacy and positive associations that North Koreans have with his grandfather.

“Kim Il-sung used to gain a lot of support from the public when he was alive and he is still respected by North Koreans. But his son was not popular. The older Kim’s enduring popularity probably explains why he (Kim Jong-un) tries to make himself look like his grandfather,” he said.

The food situation in North Korea was relatively stable during the Kim Il-sung period. It was after his sudden death in 1994 that the North Korean economy underwent extreme hardships. Hit by the floods that devastated the nation in the mid-1990s, the North was plagued by starvation and malnutrition. The great famine took the lives of hundreds of thousands of North Koreans. It was during the Kim Jong-il period when North Koreans, driven by starvation, began to risk their lives to cross the border with China for food and better lives. In the early 2000s, over 1000 North Korean escapees annually arrived in the South.

The relatively stable economic situation during the Kim Il-sung era seemed to help his positive image among the people.

His grandson and aides are taking advantage of public sentiment toward the founder of North Korea.

Kim Jong-un’s endeavor to emulate his grandfather seems to be related to the cult of personality campaign aimed at drawing the support of North Koreans.

Like Kim Jong-un, his grandfather was obese with a fatty belly.

In North Korea, FNKR leader Kim said, people with fat bellies are more likely to give a good first impression than skinny people are.

“Most North Koreans are malnourished and skinny because they don’t eat well, and obese people are very rare,” he said. “So, when they see fatty people, they say they look like high-ranking officials of the Workers’ Party because unlike malnourished ordinary North Koreans, people from the upper class are well fed.”

Therefore, from the average North Korean’s standpoint, he said people who are thin and pale are hardly likely to give a good impression to the public, especially if they are politicians.

Citizens visit the portraits of the country's late leaders Kim Il-sung, left, and Kim Jong-il on the occasion of the 78th founding anniversary of the Worker's Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, Oct. 10. AP-Yonhap