Kim Han-sol is the eldest son of Kim Jong-nam and a grandson of the former North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il. Additionally, he is also the nephew of North Korea's Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un. In 2012 he participated in his first public interview, in which he criticized his family's governorship of North Korea. His father, Kim Jong-nam, was the heir apparent to the North Korean throne until it was discovered that he had secretly attempted to visit Tokyo Disneyland. After the 2013 execution of his uncle, Jang Sung-taek, he went into police protection. In April 2020, Bloomberg News journalists Kanga Kong and Jon Herskovitz reported that Kim Han-sol's "whereabouts remain unknown" since the assassination of his father. In November 2020, he was reportedly taken into protective custody by the Central Intelligence Agency.