The government of South Korea recently disclosed that it is looking into reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in fragile condition after surgery.
Our correspondent gathered that officials from South Korea’s Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they couldn’t immediately confirm the report. Meanwhile, CNN cited an anonymous U.S. official who said Kim was in “grave danger” after an unspecified surgery.
Specifically, the Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, said it couldn’t confirm another report by Daily NK, which cited anonymous sources to report that Kim was recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving.
Permutations about Kim’s health was raised after he missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15. The world got a scare when rumors emerged about Kim Jong Un’s imminent death, spreading like wildfire across the internet and sparking speculation about everything from potential successors to U.S. responses.
Multiple reports have it that as the status of Kim remained unclear, much like the rest of the world, South Korean news quickly assessed contingency plans and what would happen should the rumors prove true. Many speculated that in the absence of a designated heir Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, may have the highest likelihood of taking over in the case of Kim’s death.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time that unverified information about North Korea has made the rounds, including rumors about Kim’s health. Usually, as in this case, these tidbits of information start off as reports in the South Korean media — often directly labeled as coming from only one source or explicitly labeled as analysis or speculation — and then get picked up by international outlets and amplified until they are repeated as established fact.
Overtime, it’s extremely hard to get one source of information about goings-on within the country, much less getting a second or third source to confirm. And because North Korea is so closed off and has built such a cult of personality around its leaders, almost any rumor coming out of the country seems potentially believable, our correspondent gathered.
