Hermit 'Kim' dom as ruler hides out
Japan official: COVID’s in NoKo
New questions have emerged about the condition of Kim Jong-un, with Japan’s defense minister suggesting the latest round of saber rattling from North Korea may be due to the despot’s poor health and a spread of COVID-19, reports say.
Speaking at an English-language briefing at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Thursday, Taro Kono addressed the Hermit Kingdom’s “strange” actions amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, NK News reported.
On Thursday, Pyongyang claimed that, in the face of “hostile policy” by the United States, it had no choice but to counter “nuclear with nuclear” — an announcement that came on the 70th anniversary of the start of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Taking care to avoid attributing his remarks to Japanese intelligence, Kono said he believed the secretive country’s escalations may be meant to “take the attention of North Korean people away from Kim Jong-un’s health, or the bad harvest or the bad economy.”
“We suspect, number one, that COVID-19 is spreading around North Korea as well, and Kim Jong-un is trying to . . . not [be] infected by COVID-19,” Kono said. “So sometimes he doesn’t come [out] in public.”
“Number two,” he said, “we have some suspicion about his health. Thirdly, the harvest last year in North Korea wasn’t quite good — bad, actually . . . The economy in
North Korea is not doing well.”
The minister avoided answering a question about Kim’s health, saying he wasn’t “allowed to discuss intelligence issues, including if it is [an] intelligence issue or not.”
Kono said his opinion that the coronavirus may be spreading throughout North Korea was based on public information, according to NK News.
“The commander of US forces in Korea also talked about that. He believes that COVID-19 is already inside North Korea,” Kono said. “I personally agree [with] his view. We just need to estimate how widely it is spreading.”
Kono’s comments come amid weeks of mounting tensions, which culminated in the recent demolition by Pyongyang of a joint liaison office in Kaesong used for talks between the two Koreas.
While incensed over activist plans to send leaflets with antiNorth Korean messages over the border, Pyongyang on Wednesday suspended plans for “military action” against South Korea.
Despite the speculation about his status, the reclusive strongman appeared jubilant when he took part in a meeting of the politburo of North Korea’s ruling Workers Party earlier this month.
Rumors about his health swirled after he did not appear at a celebration dedicated to his late ruling grandfather, Kim Il-sung, on April 15. North Korean state media later reported that he attended the opening ceremony of a fertilizer plant on May 1.