North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's wife, Ri Sol-ju, and sister Kim Yo-jong seen as potential rivals
One has a following among elite while other holds a senior party position
One sports a Christian Dior handbag and favours Western clothes. The other carries a notebook and wears dark uniforms. These are the two most influential women in North Korea.
While Kim Jong-un's wife Ri Sol-ju and younger sister Kim Yo-jong are currently allies in sustaining one of the world's most reclusive leaders, their overlapping influence makes them potential rivals in a regime where family ties aren't strong enough to protect against Kim's penchant for purges.
Ri commands a growing following among the wives of North Korean elite while Kim Yo-jong now holds a senior position in the ruling Workers' Party and serves as an adviser to her brother. "Uneasiness is inevitable in a relationship like this," Kang Myong-do, a son-in-law of North Korea's former prime minister, Kang Song-san, said by phone.
"The wife wouldn't like it if her husband got too close to his sister; the sister wouldn't like it if her brother got too close to his wife."
The sister would try to oust Ri if the first lady - a "rag-tag commoner" compared to Kim Yo-jong - sought political power beyond the role of burnishing her husband's public image, said Kang, who now teaches North Korean studies at Kyungmin University near Seoul.
Kim Yo-jong chooses to remain in her brother's shadow at public events, while Ri locks arms with Kim Jong-un. In a photo released on January 21 by the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper, Kim Yo-jong hides behind a pole as she watches the back of her brother speaking to people at a shoe factory.