Missing Kim may be recuperating after his train is spotted at resort
A special train believed to belong to Kim Jong-un has been spotted at the east coast resort of Wonsan, fuelling speculation that the North Korean leader may be staying there while being treated for health problems.
Satellite images reviewed by 38 North – the Washington-based North Korea monitoring project – seem to show a train similar to Kim’s in the so-called ‘‘leadership station’’, reserved for the Kim family, on April 21 and 23.
It comes amid varying rumours that Kim, said to be 36, recently had cardiovascular surgery and was either recovering or possibly in ‘‘grave danger’’.
Worst-case scenarios have been played down by the South Korean government and Donald Trump.
China has dispatched a team including medical experts to North Korea to advise on Kim, three people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
‘‘The train’s presence does not prove his whereabouts or indicate anything about his health but it does lend weight to reports that Kim is staying at an elite area on the country’s eastern coast,’’ 38 North said.
The group said that the luxury
Wonsan complex includes nine large guesthouses, a protected port, shooting range, recreation building and a covered dock believed to be used for Kim’s mega yacht.
If confirmed, the ability of Kim to travel around the country on his train might suggest that he is recuperating from illness rather than in a life-threatening condition.
Kim has been the subject of heated speculation since he failed to show up at events to celebrate the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il-sung – North Korea’s founding father – on April 15.
Since he came to power in 2011, Kim has never missed the Day of the Sun celebration, one of the most important national holidays of the year.
The Daily NK, a news site founded by South Korean human rights activists, cited an anonymous source as saying that Kim had undergone a ‘‘cardiovascular surgical procedure’’. This was followed by an unnamed US official who told CNN the US was ‘‘monitoring intelligence’’ that Kim was in ‘‘grave danger’’ after surgery.
North Korea’s state media has remained largely silent on the issue.
‘‘We should treat claims that Kim is ‘dead’, or that ‘nothing is wrong’, with large quantities of caution,’’ said Edward Howell, a lecturer in international relations at Oxford University. But Kim’s absence from the Day of the Sun was a potential red flag that something was amiss, he said.