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Speculation About Kim Jong-Un’s Health After His Absence From Key Events Is Kim Jong-Un Ill? South Korea Disputes Report Saying He Is
(about 1 hour later)
SEOUL — North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is receiving treatment after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month, a South Korean media report said, amid speculation over Mr. Kim’s health following his absence from a key anniversary event. SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean officials on Tuesday disputed a news report that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, was receiving treatment after undergoing heart surgery.
North Korea marked the anniversary of the birthday of its founding father and Mr. Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, as a national holiday on April 15, but Mr. Kim was not seen in attendance. Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that relies on anonymous sources inside North Korea to report on the isolated country, said late Monday that Mr. Kim received a cardiovascular procedure at Hyangsan Hospital, a clinic dedicated to treating the Kim family, on April 12.
Daily NK, a speciality website run mostly by North Korean defectors, cited unidentified sources inside the isolated state saying Kim is recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan on the east coast after getting the procedure on April 12 at a hospital there. The website said Mr. Kim was recuperating at a villa near the hospital, which is on the foothill of Mount Mohyang, north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Most of the doctors called in from Pyongyang to treat Mr. Kim returned to the capital a week later because Mr. Kim had recovered enough, the report said, quoting an anonymous source in North Korea.
Reporting from inside North Korea is notoriously difficult, especially on matters concerning the country’s leadership, given tight controls on information. Officially, the South Korean government said it had no comment. But government and parliamentary officials in Seoul privately questioned the veracity of the Daily NK report.
South Korea’s government said it was looking into reports about Mr. Kim’s health. The office of President Moon Jae-in of South Korea had “nothing to confirm” about the Daily NK report, said Mr. Moon’s spokesman, Kang Min-seok. Mr. Kang added that South Korea “has so far detected no special signs inside North Korea,” a stock phrase the South has often used to cast doubt on unsubstantiated news reports on North Korea.
Mr. Kim’s health has deteriorated in recent months because of heavy smoking, obesity and overwork, the Daily NK report said. Yonhap, South Korea’s national news agency, quoted an unnamed senior government official in Seoul as calling the Daily NK report “not true.”
Mr. Kim left for the hospital after presiding over a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Politburo on April 11, where he was last publicly seen, the report said. A member of the intelligence committee of the South’s National Assembly said that the government’s main spy agency also questioned the report.
Pyongyang fired multiple short-range missiles last week, which Seoul officials said were also part of the Kim Il Sung birthday celebration. Such military events would usually be observed by Mr. Kim, but there was no report on the test at all by North Korean state media. Mr. Kim last appeared publicly in the North’s state media on April 11, when he presided over a meeting of the Politburo of the ruling Workers’ Party.
His absence since from public view — particularly at an April 15 event honoring the birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the country’s founder — has raised speculation about his heath. Mr. Kim has disappeared from public view for weeks at a stretch in the past, setting off similar rumors.
Both Mr. Kim’s grandfather and father, Kim Jong-il, who had ruled before him, died of complications caused by heart trouble.