(Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in three weeks, state media reported on Saturday, after an unexplained absence fuelled questions about who would take over the nuclear-armed state in the event of his death.
Pyongyang has never announced who would lead the country were Kim to be incapacitated, and with no details known about his young children, analysts say his sister and loyalists could form a regency until a successor is ready to take over.
The following are key figures in the North Korean leadership circle and what role they may play in any transition.Kim's younger sister has been the most visible presence around the leader in the past two years, serving formally as a vice director of the ruling Workers' Party's powerful Central Committee but unofficially as her brother's chief of staff.
The leader's sister, believed to be 31, has a firm control of key party functions, setting herself to be the main source of power behind a collective leadership. Choe and Pak Pong Ju, a fellow politburo member and former state premier who oversaw the North's push to introduce more free-market functions to revive its economy, are likely to be the figureheads leading a collective leadership, analysts say.
Kim Kyong Hui was once a powerful figure in the leadership circle when her brother Kim Jong Il ruled the country. But she has not been seen since her husband, Jang Song Thaek, once regarded as the second most powerful man in the country, was executed in 2013 by Kim Jong Un. She has long been ill but briefly appeared early this year at a gala performance alongside her nephew.
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