North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has another son who is being kept away from the public because he is too “pale and weak”, according to former South Korean intelligence official Cho Soo-yong.

Kim Jong Un with his daughter Ju-AePhoto: Jung Yeon-je/ AFP/Profimedia Images

Citing North Korean sources, he said “the boy’s unattractive appearance appears to have prevented Kim from taking his son out in public.”

“Unlike his father or sister, who are plump, Kim’s son is said to be pale and thin,” the Korea Times quoted a former official as saying.

To date, not a single photo of Kim Jong-un’s son has appeared.

Kim Jong-un, 40, is the third generation of his family to rule North Korea since it was founded by his grandfather Kim Il-sung in 1948.

The legacy of Kim Il Sung, celebrated as a fighter against Japanese occupation in the 1930s and 1940s, is still strong in North Korea.

Physical resemblance to him is considered mandatory for the leaders of the country.

Kim Jong-un, who himself did not appear in the world media until 2010, is believed to emphasize his resemblance to his grandfather.

However, his son appears to be “not at all like his great-grandfather Kim Il Sung,” Chou claims.

Kim Jong Un is said to have three children

According to South Korea’s intelligence community, Pyongyang’s first couple have three children, although little is known about them. The first, a son, was born in 2010, the second, a daughter, in 2013. The third child, the gender of which is unknown, was born in 2017.

Former American basketball player Dennis Rodman, who visited Kim Jong Un several times, said that the North Korean leader’s daughter’s name is Ju Ae.

The first photos of Kim Jong Un’s daughter were published two years ago. Then the North Korean leader watched the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles of a “new type”. The surprise was that he was accompanied by his young daughter, whose existence had been shrouded in mystery until then.

  • The first images of Kim Jong-un’s daughter, whose existence is still shrouded in mystery

Kim Jong Un himself was largely unknown to ordinary North Koreans until he attended a public event in 2010, just a year before he succeeded his father, Kim Jong Il, who kept his identity hidden from the public, his wives and children.