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On January 25, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un was reported to have attended a major Lunar New Year concert. As usual, a row of comfortable low armchairs (Chinese style) were placed in front of the show, and it was Kim himself who, predictably, occupied one of these chairs.

On his left was his wife Ri Sol Ju, and next to her was someone that North Korea watchers – and, for that matter, North Koreans themselves – were not expecting to see.