The only person in North Korea fatter then Kim Jong-il, his son Kim Jong-nam recently addressed questions concerning his father during a trip to China:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, said on Saturday his father is the only figure that can decide on his successor.

“Nobody can assert anything… My father will only decide,” Kim told reporters upon arriving at a Beijing airport, when asked about the next leader of the communist country.

Last week, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that Kim Jong-il, thought to be recovering from serious illness, had picked his third and youngest known son, Jong-un, to succeed him. [ID:nSEO219418]

Japan’s NHK public TV showed Kim Jong-nam, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, at Beijing airport.

Kim was in the Chinese capital for a couple of days “on leisure for personal events”, Yonhap quoted him as saying. He planned to travel to another country after China before returning to North Korea in a couple of weeks, the report said.  (…..)

The question of succession in the secretive communist state is so closely guarded that no-one outside Kim’s immediate circle of family and confidants is thought to have any clear knowledge of the situation.

But speculation about his health and the succession is a favourite topic in South Korea.

“I can’t speak about such a sensitive issue,” the eldest son said, when asked about the health of the North Korean leader.  [Reuters]

This just makes me wonder what he is up to in China and whatever other country he is visiting next?