Why Kim Jong Un's Greatest Family Secret Could Challenge the Myth Behind North Korea's Ruling Dynasty For more than seven decades, North Korea has carefully cultivated one of the world's most powerful political myths: that the Kim family is destined to rule by virtue of a sacred bloodline stretching back to the legendary Mount Paektu. Every portrait, speech, school textbook and propaganda film reinforces the same message that the Kim dynasty represents not merely a political leadership but the embodiment of the Korean nation itself. Yet amid this carefully constructed narrative lies an extraordinary silence. Since assuming power following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in 2011, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly praised his grandfather, celebrated his father, and invoked the revolutionary legacy of the so-called "Paektu bloodline." But during nearly fifteen years at the helm of one of the world's most secretive states, he has never pub...