Kim Jong-un is 'alive and well', says South Korea's security adviser

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian and agencies

Kim Jong-un is 'alive and well', says South Korea's security adviser

Moon Chung-in quashes health rumours, saying North Korean leader has been in Wonsan – a resort town in the country’s east – since 13 April

Justin McCurry and agencies
Mon 27 Apr 2020 03.13 BST
Last modified on Mon 27 Apr 2020 07.48 BST

South Korea has said that Kim Jong-un, is “alive and well”, downplaying rumours that that the North Korean leader was seriously ill after undergoing heart surgery.

“Our government position is firm,” Moon Chung-in, a special adviser on national security to the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “Kim Jong-un is alive and well.”

The adviser said that Kim had been staying in Wonsan – a resort town on the country’s east coast – since 13 April, adding: “No suspicious movements have so far been detected.”

Conjecture about Kim’s health has grown since his conspicuous absence from the 15 April celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il-sung, the North’s founder – the most important day in the country’s political calendar.

Kim has not made a public appearance since presiding over a Korea Workers’ party politburo meeting on 11 April. His absence has unleashed a series of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, but officials in Seoul and Beijing have insisted that there is nothing to suggest Kim is unwell.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/kim-jong-un-is-alive-and-well-says-south-koreas-security-adviser

[hlthe2b]

1. S. Korea appeasing their deadly neighbors?

I feel certain that something has happened, whether or not Kim Jong-Un is gravely ill (or dead) or not.

[Laelth]

2. Looks like he had heart surgery and is recovering.

No reason to believe (yet) that the surgery went poorly or that he is unlikely to make a full recovery.



-Laelth

[hlthe2b]

3. As likely as any other description, but who the hell knows. S. Korea has a habit of making light

and reflecting the most positive situation (e.g., downplaying of Trump's harmful diminished support for S. Korea, building up Trump's claims of 'effective' negotiations with Kim Jong-Un, etc. )


As many former intelligence experts pointed out over the weekend...

[Laelth]

4. You're right, of course.

The public has no clue what’s really going on. We shall see what we see, I suppose.

-Laelth