Speculation and rumour about Kim Jong-un’s health might total up to nothing, but concerns about who may prosper him in the short or long term will always be there. The BBC talked to analysts about the competitors and whether history is on their side.
A male member of the Kim family has supervised of North Korea ever since its starting by Kim Il-sung in 1948 – and the folklore of this family runs deep throughout society.
Propaganda about its achievement begins for people prior to they can even read: pre-schoolers sing a tune called: “I wish to see our leader Kim Jong-un.”
So how can you think of a North Korea without this symbolic and political figure at the top? How would elites arrange themselves, in addition to society as a whole?
The easy response is: we don’t understand. More interestingly, they do not know either. They have actually never needed to do it.