Top secret

Kim Jong Un’s uncle emerges as possible successor in North Korea

Despite speculation that Kim Jong Un’s sister and closest confidant, Kim Yo Jong, might be next in line to take over leadership of North Korea, the dictator’s uncle Kim Pyong Il also has emerged as a possible successor, according to a report.

The 65-year-old is the last known survivor of the Hermit Kingdom’s founder, Kim Il Sung, whose 108th birthday commemoration his grandson missed on April 15, sparking widespread rumors about his fate, Bloomberg News reported.

In the 1970s, Kim Pyong Il was passed over by his half-brother, Kim Jong II, who took the reins of the rogue regime in 1994 and ruled until 2011.

The peripatetic Kim Pyong Il wound up spending some 40 years as a diplomat in Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, Poland and the Czech Republic before he returned to his country last year.

Some North Korea watchers now think he might catapult over Kim Yo Jong to take control, mainly due to his gender in the male-dominated society, according to the news outlet.