Tag: North Korea

As I have been saying, let this play out because these so called experts declaring him dead don’t really know what is going on with something as sensitive as Kim Jong-un’s health:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a fertilizer factory completion ceremony, state media reported Saturday, his first public appearance after 20 days of absence that sparked rumors about his health.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim cut the tape at the ceremony marking the completion of Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory in Sunchon, north of Pyongyang, on Friday.

Photos released by KCNA showed Kim, dressed in a dark Mao suit, cutting the red ribbon during the ceremony and talking to accompanying officials with a smile on his face. They did not show any signs of an illness.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but my speculation was that he may have had some follow up surgery on his bad ankle that limited his mobility. Kim Jong-un is not the type of person that is going to go out and make a public appearance with crutches. According to the report Kim looked healthy and moving around just fine.

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.

The only problem with the proposed Inter-Korean Railway project is that the North Koreans have not agreed to it yet. However, I suspect that this will be part of an effort to restart tourism to the Kumgang Resort in North Korea that the Moon administration will eventually try to circumvent sanctions to do if they are not dropped by the time this railway extension is completed:

The South Korean government on Monday held a ceremony to reconnect its railroad system to the North’s, marking the second anniversary of the inter-Korean summit at Panmunjom in 2018. 

South Korea’s railway on its eastern coast, called the Northern East Sea Line, will be extended by a total of 110.9 kilometers (69 miles) from its current northernmost point in Gangneung all the way to Jaejin Station in Goseong County, Gangwon, the last stop on South Korean territory below the military demarcation line with the North.

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, who led the ceremony, in an opening address called the construction of the railway a “Korean Peninsula New Deal” project meant to “inaugurate a new age in which the continent meets the ocean.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Congratulations to the Korean Unification Minister for creating a new word, “infodemic”:

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul on Tuesday rejected unconfirmed reports of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s illness as “fake news” and “infodemic,” insisting he can say confidently there have been no unusual signs in the communist state.

Speculation about Kim’s health spiked after he skipped an annual visit to the mausoleum of his grandfather Kim Il-sung on the late national founder’s April 15 birth anniversary, the North’s most important national holiday.

Media reports have since speculated that Kim might be seriously ill, but Seoul officials have disputed the reports, repeatedly saying there are no unusual signs found in North Korea and that Kim is believed to be staying in the country’s eastern coastal town of Wonsan.

“It can be seen as a phenomenon of infodemic,” Minister Kim said during a parliamentary foreign affairs committee meeting, referring to a recent deluge of unfounded rumors about the leader’s heath. “We have intelligence capacity that allows us to say confidently that there are no unusual signs.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The statement mentions nothing about his health, but instead thanks workers building a special tourism area:

 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his gratitude to workers building a tourist zone in the east coast region of Wonsan, state media said Monday, amid reports his special train is parked at the area amid persisting speculation about his health.

“Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has sent his appreciation to the workers who devoted themselves to building the Wonsan-Kalma tourist zone,” the Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main newspaper, said. The Korean Central Broadcasting Station carried a similar report.

Later in the day, the state-run Korean Central News Agency also reported that Kim sent a congratulatory telegram message to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Celebrity gossip sight TMZ has now jumped on the Kim Jong-un story by speculating that he has died:

North Korea’s Supreme Leader/dictator Kim Jong-un has reportedly died, or is on his death bed with no hope for recuperation — according to media outlets in China and Japan.

Amid reports China has sent a medical team to their communist neighbors this week to check in/advise on Kim, a Hong Kong-backed news channel’s vice director — who’s apparently the niece of a Chinese foreign minister — blasted out the news herself … he’s dead. TMZ has not confirmed that.

The woman put the report on a social media app called Weibo for her nearly 15 million followers to read, citing a “very solid source” about the claim Kim had, in fact, perished. A Japanese magazine reports he’s in a “vegetative state” after a heart surgery gone wrong.

The outlet reports — citing a Chinese medical expert privy to the situation — that Kim had clutched his chest in early April and fell down while visiting the countryside there. He needed a stent procedure done, but apparently … it either wasn’t done rapidly enough, or it was botched completely by the surgeon — with some reports saying he had shaky hands.

TMZ via a reader tip

You can read more at the link, but I would be very skeptical of the story that is sourced from a Weibo posting. Here is what the Korean media is reporting:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stayed out of public sight Saturday, as the reclusive nation’s tightly controlled media focused their coverage on the founding anniversary of its armed forces.

They have carried no report of Kim’s public activity since April 11, sparking speculation that the 36-year-old might be critically ill.

Pyongyang‘s propaganda outlets instead hyped the 88th anniversary of the birth of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (KPRA) that falls on April 25.

Korea Herald

Here is what the Japanese media is reporting:

Back in 1986, the South Korean media reported that Kim Il Sung had died in a coup d’etat, fatally shot by a senior officer of the North Korean Army.

The source of this shocking news, which turned out to be false, was said to have been a U.S. intelligence officer who misunderstood an intercepted Pyongyang Broadcasting Station report.

And now, what is really going on?

According to a colleague of mine stationed in Seoul, the Blue House denies rumors of Kim Jong Un’s health crisis, noting the South Korean government is “not aware of any irregular developments (in Pyongyang).”

However, my colleague also told me the prevalent view in South Korea now is that Kim very likely had some kind of cardiac surgery.

Asahi Shimbun

The longer that Kim Jong-un does not make an appearance the more likely he has had a surgery of some kind done. Remember that last time this happened he had ankle surgery so this reported current health issue could be a further complication of that prior surgery. I think everyone just needs to let this thing play out a little bit longer before declaring he has died.

It is very hard to determine what is really going on in North Korea based off of all these anonymously sourced reports; so recommend caution about drawing any definitive conclusions:

China sent a team that included health-care experts to North Korea to advise on the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, Reuters reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The move comes amid reports that Kim was in critical condition after undergoing cardiovascular surgery. U.S. officials said Monday they were told Kim’s condition was critical after the surgery, though they were unsure of his current health. President Donald Trump on Thursday cast doubt on the report about the North Korean leader.

Bloomberg

You can read more at the link.