Tag: North Korea

The speculation without facts about Kim Jong-un’s health has intensified:

Speculation is rising on the physical condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, following reports of a suspected cardiovascular surgical procedure. 

While South Korean online media dealing with North Korea issues reported he was recovering from the recent operation, CNN reported he was “in grave danger.”

Citing a local source in the North, the South Korean media outlet the Daily NK reported Monday that Kim underwent the surgery at Hyangsan Medical Center near Mount Myohyang in North Pyongan Province, an exclusive hospital for the Kim family, April 12, and has been receiving treatment at his vacation home nearby.

According to the Daily NK, the procedure was performed by a surgeon from Kim Man Yu Hospital, the North’s most up-to-date medical facility in Pyongyang, attended by other renowned doctors in the country who were mobilized to Hyangsan. Most of them were sent back to Pyongyang, Sunday, as Kim’s condition was improving and only a few are still there to check on his condition, the source said.

Korea Times

According to the South Korean government there is nothing unusual going on in North Korea:

 South Korea has seen no unusual signs suggesting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is ill, government officials said Tuesday, after CNN reported that Kim is “in grave danger after a surgery.”

“There is nothing unusual going on in North Korea. It’s not true,” a government official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity, referring to the CNN report that cited an unidentified “U.S. official with direct knowledge” of the matter.

Presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok also said that nothing unusual has been detected in the North.

Yonhap

If Kim Jong-un was at risk of dying there would be a lot more intelligence indicators to pick up which if you believe the ROK government, they are not seeing these indicators.

In 2014 this same thing happened and it ended being Kim Jong-un had ankle surgery. He could be having the same issue again due to his obesity effecting his ankles. I guess we will see what happens.

There is an interesting interview in the Korea Times with one of the North Korean restaurant workers that defected to South Korea back in 2016 I recommend everyone read:

The big question that so many have been asking: Did everyone want to escape?

A: It seems like a clear question, but the answer isn’t clear. Not all employees working at the Chinese restaurant wanted to come to South Korea. 

The context is that the work in China was tougher than we had expected. We had good situations in North Korea, so we were often openly wondering why we were working so hard; it was not as golden as it had been presented to us in North Korea. Therefore, most of us agreed to seek better working conditions in a different country.

We were not ignorant about the outside world. When I was in North Korea, I certainly knew about the possibility of escaping to South Korea, and from what I knew about the others, they did too. But we all had good lives in North Korea; why should we go to South Korea?

In discussing seeking better working conditions, about six or seven employees left. That group took taxis to the North Korean embassy to make it clear they were not participating in an escape.

Korea Times

You can read the rest of the interview at the link, but I also found it very interesting that she never met the Minbyun lawyers that were claiming that the North Koreans were kidnapped and wanted to go back.

The belief is that Kim Jong-un is trying to break away from the personality cult of his father and grandfather:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s conspicuous absence from commemorations for his grandfather Kim Il Sung’s birth anniversary this week suggests he could be looking to emphasise his own authority over his family’s legacy, analysts said.

The April 15 birthday of the North’s founder is the most important celebration of the nuclear-armed country’s annual political calendar, known as the Day of the Sun.

North Koreans are taught from birth to revere Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong Il, father of the current leader, and all adults wear badges depicting one or both men.

But Kim’s absence from any official reports on this year’s commemorations led analysts to speculate he wants to distance himself from the “cult of personality” surrounding the country’s ruling dynasty.

The state KCNA news agency did not mention him in a Thursday report on senior officials visiting the Kumsusan Palace to pay the “highest tribute” to the two late leaders.

Since inheriting power in 2011, Kim has always gone to the sprawling mausoleum on the outskirts of the capital on their birth anniversaries.

Pictures Thursday in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the official mouthpiece of the ruling party, did not show him attending, although a floral basket was draped with a banner bearing his name.

“Kim Jong Un wants to break away from the past, as well as the North’s traditional cult of personality,” said Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean defector and researcher in Seoul.

“His message is that Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung’s times are now over,” he told AFP.

“He wants to come across and brand himself as a leader who is modern and competent, rather than a descendant of his predecessors.

“And he wants to gradually tone down the idolisation of the two late leaders as it goes against his agenda to brand the North as a ‘normal state’.”

AFP

You can read more at the link, but this seems more like PR to help the Moon administration’s likely upcoming attempts to restart the Kaesong Industrial Project and the Kumgang Resort. The Moon administration can claim that Kim is a modernizer and not like his predecessors, even though he is.

So does anyone believe that North Korea has zero COVID-19 cases? Well the WHO does:

North Korea reported earlier this week that despite testing, and amid quarantining, not one confirmed case of the coronavirus has been found. Not one. This, despite the fact that North Korea’s border countries, South Korea and China, have been hit hard by the virus.

And the World Health Organization goes — yep, that’s right.

“As of 2 April, 709 people — 11 foreigners and 698 nationals — have been tested for COVID-19. There is no report of a COVID-19 case. There are 509 people in quarantine — two foreigners and 507 nationals,” said Edwin Salvador, the WHO representative to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in an email to Reuters. “Since 31 December, 24,842 people have been released from quarantine, which includes 380 foreigners.”

Washington Times

You can read more at the link, but I think one of the things at least from American point of view that is going to come out of the 2020 Pandemic is the public trusting health organizations less.