China sent team including medical specialists to advise on North Korea’s Kim: Sources
25 April, 2020
China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical authorities to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three persons familiar with the problem.
The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean leader. Reuters was struggling to immediately know what the trip by the Chinese team signaled regarding Kim's health.
A delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party's International Liaison Department left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday, two of the persons said. The department is the main Chinese body coping with neighbouring North Korea.
The sources declined to be discovered given the sensitivity of the matter.
The Liaison Department cannot be reached by Reuters for comment late on Friday. China's foreign ministry did not immediately react to a obtain comment late on Friday.
Daily NK, a Seoul-based website, reported earlier this week that Kim was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on Apr 12. It cited one unnamed source in North Korea.
South Korean government officials and a Chinese official with the Liaison Department challenged subsequent reports suggesting that Kim was in grave danger after surgery. South Korean officials said that they had detected no signs of unusual activity in North Korea.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump also downplayed earlier reports that Kim was gravely ill. "I believe the report was incorrect," Trump told reporters, but he declined to state if he had experienced touch with North Korean officials.
On Friday, a South Korean source told Reuters their intelligence was that Kim was alive and would likely make an appearance soon. The person said he did not have any touch upon Kim's current condition or any Chinese involvement.
An official acquainted with US intelligence said that Kim was recognized to have health problems nonetheless they had no reason to summarize he was seriously ill or unable eventually to reappear in public areas.
A US State dept. spokeswoman had no comment. US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, when asked about Kim's health on Fox News after Trump spoke said: "I don’t have anything I could give out tonight, but the American people ought to know we're watching the problem very keenly."
North Korea is among the world's most isolated and secretive countries, and the fitness of its leaders is treated as a matter of state security. Reuters is not in a position to independently confirm any details on Kim's whereabouts or condition.
North Korea's state media last reported on Kim's whereabouts when he presided over a meeting on Apr 11. State media didn't report that he was in attendance at an event to mark the birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on Apr 15, a crucial anniversary in North Korea.
Kim, believed to be 36, has disappeared from coverage in North Korean state media before. In 2014, he vanished for more than a month and North Korean state TV later showed him walking with a limp.
Speculation about his health has been fanned by his heavy smoking, apparent weight gain since taking power and genealogy of cardiovascular problems.
When Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, suffered a stroke in 2008, South Korean media reported at that time that Chinese doctors were involved with his treatment along with French physicians.
This past year, Chinese President Xi Jinping made the first state visit in 14 years by a Chinese leader to North Korea, an impoverished state that is determined by Beijing for financial and diplomatic support.
China is North Korea's chief ally and the economical lifeline for a country hard-hit by UN sanctions, and includes a keen interest in the stability of the country with which it shares an extended, porous border.
Kim is a third-generation hereditary leader who found power after his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011 from a coronary attack. He has visited China four times since 2018.
Trump held unprecedented summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019 within a bid to persuade him to give up North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
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