TOKYO: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s eldest son in a television interview broadcast today said he believed reports that his youngest brother will be the communist country’s next ruler.

“I hear the news by media. I think it’s true,” Kim Jong-Nam told Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi in an undated interview in Macau about the reported choice of his 26-year-old brother Kim Jong-Un as the successor.

Speaking in English, he added that it “is my father’s decision, so once he decides we have to support (it).” Jong-Nam made similar comments to Japanese broadcaster NTV last week.

Speaking to TV Asahi, he added: “My father loves very much my brother as his son. I hope he can do his best for North Korean people for their happiness and better life.”

Kim Jong-Il is thought to have suffered a stroke last August. Since then there has been speculation that one of his three sons — Jong-Nam or one of his half-brothers, Jong-Chul and Jong-Un — would succeed the 67-year-old. The succession rumours come amid high tensions after North Korea carried out its second nuclear test on May 25, followed by a series of short-range missile tests, and renounced the 1953 truce that ended fighting in the Korean War.

South Korean media, quoting a lawmaker briefed by the country’s main spy agency, have reported that Kim Jong-Il had designated Jong-Un as his successor.

Jong-Nam, who was born to a different mother than Jong-Un’s, apparently spoiled his leadership prospects after being deported from Japan in 2001 for trying to enter the country on a forged passport.

Asked whether he would want to succeed his father, Jong-Nam laughed and said: “Sorry, I’m not interested in politics.”

He denied reports that government officials close to him were being purged as “totally fake information.”