North Korea's Kim 'alive and well': Seoul
27 April, 2020
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "alive and well", a top security adviser to the South's President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary.
"Our government position is firm," said Moon's special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, within an interview with CNN on Sunday (Apr 26). "Kim Jong Un is alive and well."
The adviser said that Kim had been residing in Wonsan - a resort town in the country's east - since Apr 13, adding: "No suspicious movements have up to now been detected."
Conjecture about Kim's health is continuing to grow since his conspicuous absence from the Apr 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the North's founder - the most crucial day in the country's political calendar.
Kim hasn't made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers' Party politburo meeting on Apr 11, and the next day state media reported him inspecting fighter jets at an air defence unit.
His absence has unleashed a number of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, which officials in Seoul previously poured cool water on.
"We have nothing to verify no special movement has been detected inside North Korea as of now," the South's presidential office said in a statement last week.
South Korea's unification minister Kim Yeon-chul reiterated on Monday that remained the case, adding the "confident" conclusion was drawn from "a complex procedure for intelligence gathering and assessment".
"GRAVE DANGER"
Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, has reported Kim was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month.
Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim, who is in his mid-30s, had needed urgent treatment because of heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.
Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was "monitoring intelligence" that Kim was in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery, quoting what it said was an anonymous US official.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected reports that Kim was ailing but declined to convey when he was last in touch with him.
On Monday, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that Kim had sent a message of thanks to employees on the giant Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism project.
It was the most recent in a series of reports in recent days of statements issued or actions used Kim's name, although none has carried any pictures of him.
Satellite images reviewed by 38North, a US-based think tank, showed a train probably owned by Kim at a station in Wonsan the other day.
It cautioned that the train's existence didn't "indicate anything about his health" but did "lend weight" to reports he was staying on the country's eastern coast.
Reporting from in the isolated North is notoriously difficult, especially on anything regarding its leadership, which is among its most closely guarded secrets.
Previous absences from the general public eye on Kim's part have prompted speculation about his health.
In 2014 he dropped out of sight for almost six weeks before reappearing with a cane. Days later, the South's spy agency said he previously undergone surgery to eliminate a cyst from his ankle.
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