Tyrant’s nephew spurned place at Oxford over fear of assassination
THE nephew of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned down a place at Oxford University amid fears he could be murdered in the UK by the tyrant’s globe-trotting assassins, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
Kim Han Sol was living in fear of his uncle’s ruthless hit squads even before the brutal murder of his father Kim Jong Nam in Malaysia last week.
Yesterday a horrifying picture was published of Kim Jong Nam moments from death in an airport chair after he was poisoned by female assassins last Monday.
Pictures of three suspected North Korean agents said to have watched the killing from an airport restaurant were also released – supporting the theory that paranoid tyrant Kim Jong Un ordered the execution of his half-brother.
Han Sol was due to move to the UK after reportedly being offered a place at an Oxford graduate college, starting in September. His girlfriend is also a student there.
But the offer coincided with warnings from Chinese security officials that the North Korean leader was plotting to kill both the 21-year-old and his father to wipe out the family’s bloodline.
Peace-loving Han Sol, who studied politics in Paris for three years before winning the Oxford place, is seen as a potential standin leader should the North Korean regime collapse.
Yesterday he was under armed guard with his mother Ri Hye Kyong and sister Sol Hui, 18, in the Chinese gambling resort of Macau. The Mail on Sunday has learned he has had extra protection from Chinese security agents for months.
Residents in the apartment block where the family is living said armed police had been patrolling there for at least three months before Monday’s assassination.
Han Sol and his father were advised not to travel outside Macau and China where North Korea would be reluctant to send a hit squad for political reasons, security sources said.
Casino-loving womaniser Kim Jong Nam shrugged off the warnings, travelling to Malaysia where he is rumoured to have a mistress, before being poisoned in Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday. Han Sol appears to have taken the threat more seriously, turning down the UK college offer and deciding to stay in Macau.
‘North Korea depends heavily on Chinese aid and Kim Jong Un wouldn’t dare kill his nephew on Chinese soil,’ said a Beijing source.
‘In Britain, however, Han Sol would be at far greater risk.
‘We don’t know for sure if he turned down the university place because of the warning but it now looks as if that decision may have kept him alive for now.’
Han Sol’s girlfriend, who goes by the English name Sonia and refers to Han Sol as ‘hubby’, is already is studying in the UK, according to a Macau newspaper.
Since taking power in 2011, Kim Jong Un has been obsessed with fear that his brutal regime might be overthrown and his half-brother or nephew installed in his place. He executed his uncle Jang Sung Taek in 2013 after accusing him of plotting with China to overthrow the regime.
Two South-East Asian women believed to have been duped into poisoning Jong Nam with spray have been arrested over Monday’s assassination. A suspected North Korean agent is also in custody.
UNCONSCIOUS ON AN AIRPORT CHAIR, LAST PICTURE OF HIS FATHER AFTER POISON ATTACK