© APKim Jong-un with his aunt Kim Kyong Hu and her husband Jang Song Thaek
As with most of Pyongyang's recent propaganda reels, the footage shows the young Kim Jong-un in a typically belligerent role. Having been shown on Friday posing with a handgun, new footage released yesterday depicted the jowelly leader supervising the launch of a plane that is then deftly shot down by anti-aircraft missiles.
But while his image makers seek to portray the boyish leader as a tough guy with his finger on the nuclear trigger, it is thought to be his aunt and uncle who are pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Kim Kyong-hui and her husband Jang Sung-taek, both 66, are the Pyongyang power couple who were chosen by the late Kim Jong-il before he died in 2011 to help consolidate the authority of his son.
Analysts believe it is no coincidence that the duo were seen last weekend sitting on either side of their nephew at a central committee session of the Workers' Party, where Kim issued his latest defiant message to the world, vowing to maintain nuclear weapons as "the nation's life treasure".
That speech presaged a week of escalating tensions on the peninsula as Kim threatened the US and South Korea, and moved his missile batteries into firing positions. On Friday, Britain and Russia were warned that the safety of the embassies could not be guaranteed "in the event of conflict from April 10th", although yesterday Foreign Office said it still had no plans to evacuate diplomats.
© PAKim Kyong-hui during a ruling Workers' Party representatives meeting in 2010
Her husband, Mr Jang, who was Kim Jong-il's closest confidant, is vice chairman of the National Defence Commission and the regime's key liaison with China, whose support is the country's economic lifeline.
But as the "first family", the couple's most important role is to defend the dynasty by forging the young Kim's credentials as a powerful military figure, amid concerns that some generals in the powerful armed forces do not trust him.
North Korea has been a family affair ever since its inception in 1948 under Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994 but remains its Eternal President. His grandson, known as the Supreme Leader, is even physically modelling himself on the country's founding father.
© Alamy
As the daughter of the country's first leader, sister of its second and aunt of its third, Miss Kim has been a key political figure for four decades. She disappeared from public view for six years after 2003, having apparently fallen from favour, but re-emerged more powerful than ever and was made a four-star general in 2010.
By the following year, she and her husband were regularly seen in photos as part of the young Kim's official entourage, a sure sign of their membership of the inner circle. One picture showed the three riding down a supermarket escalator together, standing behind Kim Jong-il in what was one of his last public appearances before his death. "The Escalator of Evil", as some Western pundits have jokingly put it, has now reportedly become a shrine for some North Koreans, who pay homage to the late leader there.
Oddly, when Miss Kim is not helping her nephew run the country, she is also the burger queen of Pyongyang, owning the only burger joint in the city. However, rather than using the Americanism of "burger", the restaurant describes its offerings as "minced meat and bread". It has, by all accounts, been a huge hit. Customers wash down the exotic delicacy with local beverages such as Pyongyang Cider and Kumgang Draft Beer.
Such culinary treats are a privilege reserved for the elite in the capital, however. Much of the country has been plagued by persistent famine and millions have died from hunger, disease and in concentration camps during her family's reign.
In the past, North Korea's threats and provocations were often seen in the past as a bargaining chip by the regime to secure greater food aid or concessions in nuclear talks.
But the heated rhetoric and sabre-rattling of recent days appears to be aimed as much at a domestic audience as a global one.
Pyongyang has expressed anger about international sanctions on its nuclear programme and joint military drills involving US and South Korean forces to justify its belligerence. With tensions mounting, the US dispatched F-22 stealth jets to the region to join the shared exercises.
The North Korean industrial park that was the last example of co-operation with the South ground closer to paralysis as nearly 100 South Korean workers headed home yesterday. Pyongyang has closed the border to the normal arrivals of fresh staff from the South.
As the North's military stated that it had been authorised to attack the US, defence chiefs in Seoul said that its neighbour had transferred missiles and launchers with "considerable range" to the east coast. A launch from there would put targets in South Korea or Japan in range.
In an attempt to ease the ratcheting up of words and gestures, US officials has cut back on public statements about the crisis. But Jay Carney, President Barack Obama's spokesman, said that the White House would "not be surprised" if Pyongyang launched another missile as part of its pattern of provocations.
The third member of the troika guiding Kim is Choe Ryong-hae, a party bureaucrat whom he appointed head of the military after old-timers were purged. The three are attempting to transform Kim into a national figurehead with a reputation as military tactician capable of handing an international crisis. It could not be a higher stakes exercise in image manipulation.
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