Kim Jong-chul, the little-seen elder brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has surfaced in London, according to a series of reports, attending concerts by Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall.
A man identified as the elder Kim, 33, was filmed by Japanese TV crews at Clapton’s concert on Thursday evening.
Broadcaster TBS filmed Kim Jong-chul, wearing dark sunglasses and clad in a leather jacket, getting out of a minivan outside the central London venue, flanked by suited men who appeared to be North Korean officials.
More TBS footage shows him applauding in the crowd, and then leaving the venue via a corridor.
“How was the concert?” a TBS reporter asked, in response to which one of Kim Jong-chul’s entourage placed a hand over the camera lens.
The NK News Web site cited an anonymous source who also filmed Kim Jong-chul’s exit as confirming the man was Kim Jong-un’s brother. According to this source, the elder Kim saw Clapton play on Wednesday and Thursday, sitting near the stage.
“He wasn’t so distinctive,” NK News quoted the source as saying. “But the obviously older guy next to him was clearly neither a typical Clapton fan or dressed for a gig.”
According to NK News, Japanese and South Korean media learned of Kim Jong-chul’s appearance at the Wednesday concert and so arrived in force the next day.
Kim Jong-chul is the middle of the three sons of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011. The eldest of the trio, Kim Jong-nam, 44, who has a different mother to his siblings, was seen as most likely to succeed as leader before an incident in 2001 when he tried to enter Japan on a false passport, supposedly to visit Disneyland.
While Kim Jong-chul has previously held some mid-level official positions, he has kept a generally low profile under the rule of his younger brother.
North Korea is officially run on a highly nationalistic and insular philosophy of self-reliance, known as juche. However, top-ranking citizens have previously shown a taste for foreign culture. Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was well-known for his love of foreign cuisine and US cinema, while Kim Jong-un is a basketball fan who has repeatedly met former NBA star Dennis Rodman.
According to the Financial Times in 2008, North Korea has formally invited Clapton to play in the country.
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