Kim Han-sol, the teenage grandson of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, posted messages on the video-sharing website YouTube three years ago expressing his sympathy for the starving people in his country.

One message, which he wrote in response to comments under a video clip of the North Korean national anthem, said, "Actually i eat like an average person, i can't eat even if i had good food, cuz like i feel sorry for my ppl."

Using the ID "kimhs616," which is believed to be his, he also wrote he was a North Korean living in Macau and visits North Korea via China every August. "I know my people are hungry," he wrote in another comment on the thread. "I'd do anything to help them."

In response to a question, he identifies himself as being "related" to the regime but declines to say more. He later adds in capital letters, "LONG LIVE DPRK," short for Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Meanwhile, Kim is believed to be behind the Twitter accounts "khsol616" and "kimhs616," where he follows 41 individuals and 28 organizations. Among them are the Chosun Ilbo and KBS of South Korea, the U.S. National Public Radio, Bill Gates and the North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri.

On a blog he created in 2009, Han-sol posted an environmental awareness cartoon he drew in 2007 on the online animation website stripgenerator.com.

Han-sol has closed down his YouTube account and taken steps to conceal his tracks in cyberspace since the story of his online activity broke. But a Facebook account believed to belong to Han-sol's father Kim Jong-nam, under the alias Kim Chol, remains open.