The long wait is over; the transition has begun. On Monday North Korean media for the first time uttered the name of Kim Jong-eun, as one of five new generals gazetted on the eve of a very rare meeting of party activists; the last such was 44 years ago.

Also promoted is Kim Kyong-hui. Four-star general is a rare rank for an untried youth of 27, as it is for a middle-aged female director of light industry. But these are not just any old Kims. Jong-eun is the third son of Pyongyang’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il. Kyong-hui is his sister. She is married to Jang Song-taek, long the Dear Leader’s right-hand man.

So it is all in the family. And although the Workers’ Party of Korea nominally controls the army, all those new epaulettes show which power structure counts. Communism this is not; more a militarised but mendicant monarchy, now on its uppers.