Last week, while North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was presenting his youngest son to Chinese leaders as his chosen successor, his first born and the man who should have succeeded him was leading a life of leisure and luxury in Macau, costing his father US$500,000 a year.
In Changchun , capital of Jilin province, Kim met President Hu Jintao and introduced Kim Jong-un, at 27 the youngest of his three sons and the one he has chosen to follow him as leader of North Korea.
At the other end of the country, his eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, lives with his wife and two children in a luxury home overlooking the South China Sea, passing his time in five-star hotels, brand shops, expensive restaurants, night clubs and casinos.
As Kim Jong-il's health deteriorates, Jong-un is the heir-anointed, but, young and inexperienced, he may not be accepted by the veterans of the Korean Workers Party and the military, the country's two most powerful institutions.
Twelve years ago Jong-nam was groomed to succeed his father, in the same way as he succeeded Kim Il-sung. He was given senior posts in the IT sector and the military. Then he, his son and two women were detained at Narita airport in May 2001, when he entered Japan on a fake Dominican Republic passport.
The public shame enraged his father, who banished him from high office in Pyongyang. Since then, he has enjoyed a gilded exile in Macau.