Here is what Taiwan’s intelligence chief had to say about the health status of Kim Jong-un:

Taiwan’s intelligence chief said Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “sick” but remains in control of the nuclear-armed nation.

Chiu Kuo-cheng, director of the National Security Bureau (NSB), said the North has contingency plans in the event of Kim’s sudden death, according to local reports.

The director revealed this at a government hearing by legislators. 

“My answer is from the intelligence that is available and it is not an opinion,” Chiu said.

He laughed and refused to reply when asked if Kim was alive, the report said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

President Moon has enough political capital after his party won the parliamentary elections decisively to hold his ground on this issue:

Seoul is standing firm against Washington’s repeated pressure for a hefty increase in its share of the cost for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong United States Forces Korea (USFK) stationed here. Although the lack of deal has put thousands of Korean workers at U.S. military bases on unpaid leave, the government is not accepting the U.S. demand, but instead responding by setting up special laws to support the workers.

“Korea and the U.S. are still in negotiations over the defense cost-sharing deal and nothing has been officially decided yet,” the foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Cheong Wa Dae also said that the allies were still in talks, adding that there was nothing new to reveal.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I can see this dragging out for quite a while.

I am not sure how anyone can claim to be 99% sure of anything coming out of North Korea, especially something as sensitive as Kim Jong-un’s health:

 A North Korea defector elected as a lawmaker in South Korea claimed Friday that he is “99 percent” sure that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un died after surgery amid speculation over his health.

Unconfirmed reports about Kim’s ill health have mounted since he has not appeared in public for nearly three weeks. News reports described Kim as being in “grave danger” after surgery or hiding out at a coastal resort to escape the coronavirus pandemic.

Ji Seong-ho, who earned a proportional representation seat of a minor party in the April 15 elections, claimed that he is 99 percent sure of Kim’s death and North Korea may make the related announcement this weekend.

“I’ve wondered how long he could have endured after cardiovascular surgery. I’ve been informed that Kim died last weekend,” Ji told Yonhap News Agency.

“It is not 100 percent certain, but I can say the possibility is 99 percent. North Korea is believed to be grappling with a complicated succession issue,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I guess we will see what happens this weekend.

What the Korea Centers for Disease Control is essentially saying is that the coronavirus detection kit was faulty and that is why it is showing reinfections:

Some coronavirus patients in Korea who tested positive for Covid-19 after recovery — sparking alarm about possible reinfections — probably did so because the country’s sensitive testing procedure detected “dead” virus fragments within their bodies.

A clinical committee for new infectious diseases within the state-backed National Medical Center said Wednesday in a press briefing that there was a low chance that those people were actually reinfected with Covid-19 and said the country’s RT-PCR testing method seemed to have confused a dead virus fragment with an active one.  

Fears of reinfection arose after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported cases of recovered patients testing positive for Covid-19 again. By Monday, there were at least 277 people who fell into that category.   

You can read more at the link.

This is quite a tragedy that happened in Icheon:

Police on Thursday strived to identify some of the 38 construction workers killed in a warehouse fire in Icheon, south of Seoul, after wrapping up a search and rescue operation in one of the country’s deadliest blazes in years. 

The fire, which injured 10 others, two of them seriously, engulfed a four-story building under construction in Icheon, 50 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Wednesday afternoon and was put out five hours later.

Yonhap

Here is what President Moon had to say:

President Moon Jae-in voiced regret that another massive fire had taken place despite government safety measures put in place following fatal fires in 2017 and 2018. A fire at a sports center in Jecheon killed 29 people and injured 40 others in December 2017, and another occurred in Miryang, killing 45 and injuring 147 only a month later in 2018. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I do find it interesting how moderate the media coverage of a major mass casualty death like this is getting.