The South Korean government announced that it would look into the media reports that suggest that the Supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un is in grave danger after heart surgery. The reports started to do the rounds after he missed the birthday celebration of his grandfather on the 15th of April.
Daily NK, the South Korean website was the first to report about the health of the North Korean leader. In its initial report, it said that the leader is on the path of recovery after undergoing heart surgery in Pyongyang. The report cited anonymous officials who confirmed that Kim’s condition was improving. Later, another report by CNN cited another anonymous United States official who said that Kim is in grave danger after an ‘unspecified surgery’. Yet another official was quoted saying that Kim is I danger but the severity is unknown.
Confusion surrounds clarity on Kim’s health
Responding to these reports, the officials of South Korea’s Unification Ministry and National Intelligence survey admitted that they cannot authenticate any of the reports yet. They also said that there has not been any suspicious activity detected in North Korea. The ministry deals with inter-Korean affairs.
CNN later reported that although many leaders in the country know about the condition of Kim, they are not willing to verify any of the reports. CNN’s source also reportedly revealed that the issues might be related to his weight and aggressive smoking. However, the confirmation on it is awaited.
Getting credible information from the country of North Korea has been extremely difficult as the nuclear country tightly censors the information that goes out of the country. Bruce Klinger, the former CIA deputy division chief for North Korea spoke to CNN and said,
“If Kim is hospitalized, it would explain why he wasn’t present on the important April 15 celebrations. But, over the years, there have been a number of false health rumors about Kim Jong-un or his father. We’ll have to wait and see.”
This is not the first time Kim has triggered the rumors surrounding his health. In 2014, the North Korean leader had disappeared from the public eye for 6 weeks. It was later confirmed that he had a cyst removed from his ankle.
Source: Scroll.in
