THE nephew of North Korean despot Kim Jong Un turned down a place at Oxford University due to fears he would be murdered by assassins, it is claimed.

Kim Han Sol feared being a victim of one of his uncle's globe-trotting hit squads, according to The Mail on Sunday.

It emerged after the 21-year-old's father - half-brother to Kim Jong Un - was suspected to have suffered a similar fate in a Malaysian airport.

Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46 and had lived in exile for years, suddenly fell ill at Kuala Lumpur airport last Monday as he waited for a flight home to Macau.

Dizzy and in pain, he told medical workers at the airport he had been sprayed with a chemical, and he died while being taken to hospital.

South Korea says he was poisoned by two female assassins who fled in a taxi.

His son, who the Mail claimed had been offered a place at one of Oxford's graduate colleges, is said to have harboured assassination fears before the airport incident. 

He would have been due to start in September at the college, where his girlfriend is also reportedly studying. 

But Chinese security officials warned his uncle was plotting to kill him and his father - to wipe out their family’s bloodline.

This was because Han Sol is seen as a potential stand-in leader should the North Korean regime collapse, the Mail said. 

The paper claims he has been under armed protection with his mother Ri Hye Kyong and sister Sol Hui in the Chinese region Macau, known as the 'Vegas of China'.