Mystery children and sibling rivalries - this is Kim Jong Un's family tree

He is only one of three sons, and, surprisingly, he's the youngest of them all.

Though it's typical for the eldest son to become the heir to the title of Supreme Leader, his older brothers — Kim Jong Chol and his half-brother Kim Jong Nam — were bypassed in favor of Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Chol is Kim Jong Un's older brother who was supposedly going to succeed Kim Jong Il until he was rejected in favor of Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Il reportedly rejected Kim Jong Chol from leadership because "he is like a little girl."

Source: BBC

Kim Jong Un is believed to have felt uneasy about his eldest brother, Kim Jong Nam, prompting the widespread belief that Kim Jong Un was ultimately behind the plot to murder him in February 2017.

Kim Jong Nam was the victim of an intricately orchestrated assassination plot, in which two women allegedly attacked him with VX nerve agent, each smearing his face with substances that reacted with one another, causing him to die.

Kim Jong Nam was also the father of three children, whom some have suggested may also be considered a threat to Kim Jong Un's regime.

One of Kim Jong Nam's children bears the seemingly Western name Kim Jimmy.

Kim Han Sol, who is only 22, has spoken out against his uncle's regime, saying in a 2012 interview with Finnish television that Kim is a "dictator" and that he dreamed of going back to North Korea to "make things better, and make things easier for the people back there."

After Kim Jong Nam's death, Kim Han Sol said in a YouTube video that his family feared for their safety.

Little is also known about Kim Jong Un's wife Ri Sol-ju, except what is seen in photos released by the country's state-run media — namely that she accompanies him to public events and has a penchant for expensive designer clothing.

Ri's pregnancies have been the subject of international speculation, generally because she sometimes disappears from the public eye for months at a time.

While people sometimes worry that her absences are because of falling out of favor with her famously impulsive and mercurial husband, South Korean intelligence typically suggests she leaves the public eye when she is carrying a child.

The names and exact ages of Kim Jong Un’s children with Ri are difficult to pin down. The North Korean government hasn’t even confirmed the three young children exist.

But South Korean intelligence has confirmed that there are three children, the oldest of whom is a boy, and that they were born in 2010, 2013, and 2017.

The rest of the publicly known information comes from none other than Dennis Rodman, the former US basketball star who has struck up a controversial friendship with Kim Jong Un, and who has visited North Korea several times.

Rodman has told media that he once held Kim’s second child — a baby girl named Ju-ae.

But Kim Jong Un isn't the first to withhold details about his family — his father Kim Jong Il, who ruled from 1994 to 2011, was even more secretive.

Kim Jong Il never even officially confirmed that he had a wife, but he is believed to have married Kim Yong Suk around 1994, and maintained several other extramarital relationships, one of which yielded Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Il has a sister named Kim Kyong Hui, who was also active in North Korea's politics but has remained largely hidden from the public eye.

She is apparently being treated for a host of deadly diseases, and disappeared from public view in December 2013.

Source: Telegraph

Part of the reason for Kim Kyong Hui's disappearance was Kim Jong Un's execution of her husband, Jang Song Thaek.

Jang Song Thaek had allegedly been plotting to overthrow the regime in 2013, after which he was given the death sentence by his nephew, Kim Jong Un.

Source: Telegraph

Kim Sul Song is one of Kim Jong Il's children and Kim Jong Un's 40-year-old half-sister, and is a powerful business magnate in North Korea

Although she has been rumored to be one of Kim Jong Un's rivals due to her powerful position, she has since rallied around Kim after Kim Jong Il's death, and now sits in the upper brass of North Korea's political class.

Finally, the common root of this entire maze of family relationships is Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, who is considered the founding father of North Korea.

Sung was born in 1912 and was a guerilla fighter battling the Japanese occupation of Korea, and later fought with the Soviet Union during World War II. He was able to consolidate power over what became North Korea immediately after the war, and although he was only officially elected president in 1972, had effectively held power over the state as premier ever since 1948.

Kim Il Sung led North Korea from the regime's inception in 1948 to his death in 1994. He married twice, but just like his grandson, it's not entirely clear how many children he had.

It's believed he had two children — including Kim Jong Il – with his first wife, Kim Jong Suk, and three children with his second wife, Kim Song Ae. He is also believed to have had other children from extramarital relationships.

What started with Kim Il Sung's small nuclear family of four has evolved into a lasting political dynasty. Now that the Kims are in possession of nuclear weapons, they are among the most important families in the world.