Questions arise over Kim Jong-un's successor as rumours about his death
Kim Jong Un and his sister.
Recently news about North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un's ill healthhas been circulating. There are also rumours of the leader passing away. However, there has been no official word from North Korea or its allies.
Reports about Kim's ill healthsurfaced after he missed the birth anniversary of of North Korea’s founding father and Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, on 15 Apriland later missed the Army Day celebrations on Friday.
With these rumours circulating, the world is now wondering who will be the successor to rule North Korea, as there are no known children of Kim. Experts andanalysts believehis sister,Kim Yo-jong, and loyalists could form a regency until a successor is old enough to take over.
Kim Yo-jong has been in the spotlight for the past few years as she served formally as a vice director of the ruling Workers' Party's powerful Central Committee but unofficially as her brother's chief of staff.
Kim, who is believed to be 31, is believed to have a form control over party functions, and is therefore, expected to take the reign if her brother, believed to be 36, passes away due to his health conditions.
"Kim Yo Jong will be for the time being the main power base with control of the organisation and guidance department, the judiciary and public security," Cho Han-bum of the Korea Institute for National Unification said.
While it is speculated that Kim has three with Ri Sol Ju, the youngest born in 2017, there has been no proof of it as of now. even if the speculations turn out to be true, the oldest son will not be able to take control of the country till he turns 18.
Kim Yo Jong is unlikely to take over the helm but could help build a caretaker regime as a power broker until the kids grow up, and Kim Jong Chol might return to help for a while," Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, told a media company.
From Kim's political party,Choe Ryong Hae andPak Pong Ju, two senior party leaders, hold a chance to be the figureheads leading a collective leadership.
Choe rose in power last year after hebecame the president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. Pak Pong Ju is a fellow politburo member and former state premier who oversaw the North's push to introduce more free market functions to revive its economy, are likely to be the figureheads leading a collective leadership.