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KIM Jong-un’s sister could be a more brutal leader and a bigger nuclear threat to the US than him, experts have said.
Kim Yo Jong, 32, could be poised to seized power as fresh rumours suggest that her despot brother is currently in a coma.
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The 36-year-old dictator has rarely has rarely been sighted since a reported botched heart operation in April.
Suspicions first arose after he failed to attend celebrations for the Day of the Sun, an important annual event marking the birth of Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder.
He later re-emerged, but has since only appeared in public intermittently, and is reported to be suffering ongoing health problems.
The rumours have sparked renewed speculation about the power struggle that could follow in the event of his death.
Kim Yo Jong has become and increasingly central figure in the regime in recent years and is currently thought to be the front-runner to replace her brother.
David Maxwell is a retired US Army colonel and previously worked with the Pentagon on a contingency plan to prepare for any collapse of the North Korean regime.
Speaking to the New York Post, he said that Kim Yo Jong remained an unknown quantity, but added: “My speculation — given the reputation and history of the family — is that she would rule with an iron fist.”
He said many experts believed before Kim Jong-un took power that he would be more open to the outside world than his father, but that that hope hadn’t been realised.
“I think we have to assume that every successor is worse than the last,” he said.
Discussion about a likely successor first began again after Chang Song-min, an ex-aide to late South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung, told local media that he believed senior North Korean officials were trying to conceal the truth about Kim Jong-un’s recent health.
“I assess him to be in a coma, but his life has not ended,” he said.
“A complete succession structure has not been formed, so Kim Yo-jong is being brought to the fore as the vacuum cannot be maintained for a prolonged period.”
‘AMBITIOUS AND SMART’
Sung-Yoon Lee, a professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, told the Post that the claims were wholly unsubstantiated, but said Kim Yo Jong was clearly being prepped to take her brother’s place should it become necessary.
He said she was “ambitious and smart” but that the nature of the role would demand “she be ruthless, especially in the first few years.”
“The way for her to build up her credibility and net worth, that is, the way for her to get respect, is not to play nice but be a cruel dictator to her people and a credible nuclear threat to the US,” he said.
“She may prove herself fiercer and more tyrannical than her brother, father, or grandfather.”
North Korea is known to be pursuing a nuclear weapons programme, and talks between the regime and the Trump administration have so far failed to produce any agreement on disarmament.
Another possible successor is Kim Pyong II, uncle to the siblings, who returned to the country in 2019 after spending years working as a diplomat in Europe.
Victor Cha, a former director of Asian affairs on the National Security Council under President Bush, told the Post that the possible power struggle resembled a storyline from The Sopranos.
“It’s not clear if the sister and uncle would work together or if they would be competing,” he added.
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