Kim Gone Un? No, North Korea’s tyrant is back
IT WAS a rather inauspicious setting from which to announce to the world that he was alive and well after all.
One might have expected to see North Korea’s Kim Jong Un make a triumphant balcony appearance or pose in front of a tank, but it was at the opening of a fertiliser factory that the dictator chose to resurface 20 days after he was last seen in public. Grinning widely, he seemed in good spirits.
Rumours about his health went into overdrive after he missed celebrations to mark the birthday of the secretive communist country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15.
As speculation mounted, reports variously claimed that Kim, 36, was dead, in grave danger, in a vegetative state after botched heart-valve surgery, or in quarantine after contracting Covid-19.
There was much debate over who would take control of the nucleararmed country, with Kim’s younger sister said to be the frontrunner.
According to state media, Kim appeared at a ceremony in the city of Sunchon on Friday, although the report could not be independently confirmed. Whether it will satisfy the rumour-mongers is unclear.
Asked about Kim’s reported reappearance, US President Donald Trump told reporters that he did not want to comment yet.
Claims about Kim’s ill-health first surfaced in a report for a website run by North Korean defectors. An anonymous source said it was understood he had been struggling with a heart problem since last August but it worsened after he climbed a mountain.
But then came a more sensational headline in the US media that Kim was in a critical condition after heart surgery went wrong.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stoked the rumours on April 29 by saying US officials ‘hadn’t seen’
Kim recently. However, his absence is not without precedence. The tyrant went missing for 40 days in September 2014, after attending a concert. He reappeared using a cane.