North Korea: Kim Jong-un's half-brother and rival spotted in Malaysia Previously, Mr Kim had been widely seen as the heir to the communist world's only hereditary dynasty but fell out of favour when he was detained in 2001 trying to enter Japan on a forged passport with a woman and a child. He told authorities that he wanted to visit Disneyland. He has since lived in exile in Macau, China, Singapore and now Malaysia. "Mr Kim has been the target of an attempt on his life in the past and it would be reasonable for him to think he is still at risk," Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and an authority on North Korean affairs, told The Telegraph. "He usually tries to stay in China, but there are many North Korean agents in China now and he clearly felt he was at risk again," Professor Shigemura said. In Malaysia, it may be easier for him to hide. Kim Jong-un wants him dead because he knows many secrets about him and Pyongyang, but also because he fears that Kim Jong-nam could serve as the focal point of a coup against his rule," the professor said. There are long-standing suggestions that China has been protecting Kim Jong-nam as a future North Korean leader, should an accident befall Kim Jong-il or an uprising unseat him. Mr Kim is considered the sole legitimate candidate due to the need to continue the family line.