Tag: Kim Jong-un

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.

Here is the latest on the Kim Jong-un health watch:

 U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he does not know about the health condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but hopes he is doing well amid unconfirmed reports that the young leader may be seriously ill.

“These are reports that came out, and we don’t know. We don’t know,” Trump said at a White House coronavirus press briefing. “I can only say this: I wish him well. Because if he is in the kind of condition that the reports say, that the news is saying, that’s a very serious condition, as you know, but I wish him well.”

Trump said he doesn’t place “too much credence” in any report put out by CNN. Citing an unidentified U.S. official, CNN first reported that the U.S. is looking into intelligence that Kim is in “grave danger” after a surgery.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is what North Korea is believed to have tested a couple of days ago:

 North Korea is believed to have tested a super-large multiple rocket launcher in this week’s projectile launches after reducing firing intervals for operational deployment, experts and military sources said Tuesday.

On Monday, the communist country fired two projectiles in quick succession from its eastern coastal city of Wonsan into the East Sea. They flew around 240 kilometers, reaching a maximum altitude of around 35 km, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). 

It was the first such test by the North since Nov. 28, when it launched two missiles from what is presumed to be a super-large multiple rocket launcher.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is yet another step in North Korea’s pressure campaign to get sanctions dropped for little to nothing in return:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party and discussed “important organizational and political measures and military steps to bolster up” the armed forces, state media said Sunday.

The meeting was held amid heightened tensions with the United States with Pyongyang threatening to seek a “new way” unless Washington comes up with a acceptable proposal in their nuclear negotiations by end of the year.

“Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un gave analysis and briefing on the complicated internal and external situation and said that the meeting would decide on important organizational and political measures and military steps to bolster up the overall armed forces of the country,” the Korean Central News Agency said.

“Also discussed were important issues for decisive improvement of the overall national defence and core matters for the sustained and accelerated development of military capability for self-defence,” it added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is just another example of North Korea trying to create more tension prior to the end of the year in hopes of getting a deal with the Trump administration:

The lack of courtesy shown to Kim had “prompted the waves of hatred of our people against the U.S. and the Americans and they are getting higher and higher”, Choe said.

“It would be fortunate” if Trump’s remarks were simply “an instantaneous verbal lapse, but the matter becomes different if they were a planned provocation that deliberately targeted us”, she said. 

North Korea would watch closely to see if Trump repeated the comments, Choe said. 

“If any language and expressions stoking the atmosphere of confrontation are used once again on purpose at a crucial moment as now, that must really be diagnosed as the relapse of the dotage of a dotard,” she concluded. 

Trump said on Tuesday he still had confidence in the North Korean leader but noted that Kim “likes sending rockets up”. 

“…That’s why I call him Rocket Man,” Trump told reporters at a NATO meeting in London.

Reuters

The North Koreans have never been known for their sense of humor, but clearly the President was trying to be funny.