RUMOURS OVER KIM JONG UN’S DEATH UNTRUE, SAYS SOUTH KOREA

SEOUL: South Korea’s government has dismissed rumours that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in fragile condition, as speculation about his health intensifies amid the North’s silence on his whereabouts.

There are concerns, particularly in Seoul and Washington, about what would happen to North Korea and its nuclear programme if anything had actually happened to Kim.

For South Korea and the US, Kim’s absence would mean the departure of a man they’ve dealt with over the past two years to try to achieve denuclearisation, though talks have stalled in recent months.

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul told a closed-door forum in Seoul that South Korea has “enough intelligence to confidently say that there are no unusual developments” in rival North Korea that would back up speculation about Kim’s health, his ministry said on Monday.

The minister would not reveal at Sunday’s forum what specific intelligence led to that conclusion, but he stressed that it was reached after a thorough analysis. The rumours about Kim’s health began to swirl after he missed the April 15 commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.