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Kim Jong-un is “sick” and North Korea has contingency plans in the event of a power struggle should the controversial leader die, an intelligence chief said.
The director general of the Taiwan National Security Office (NSB), Chiu Kuo-cheng, kept his lips closed when he gave an update during a government meeting on Thursday, Taiwan News reports.
He answered questions about recent media reports that Kim was possibly dead, claiming that the leader is simply “sick.”
When pressed further about whether Kim is still alive, the intelligence chief laughed and then sidestepped the question before being asked about possible contingency plans.
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Chiu told Kuomintang (KMT) President Chiang Chi-chen that he did not want to discuss the situation in North Korea more publicly as he was at risk of compromising a source.
However, he added that regardless of whether the political turmoil pokes its head, there will only be a brief period of integration and struggle.
And legislative plans for a potential power struggle were secured if the leader died, according to reports.
Multiple media outlets claim that the controversial leader is desperately ill or perhaps dead after undergoing cardiac surgery.
Speculation erupted after Kim missed an annual birthday celebration for her late grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the country’s founder, on April 15.
According to reports yesterday, officials in North Korea have He stopped trying to silence the suggestion that Kim is dead.
Daily NK claims to have spoken to a source based in North Hamgyong province.
They said: “All kinds of rumors are spreading.
“But even though the government is aware of all this, there has been no centralized response, be it in the form of conferences or otherwise. That’s really weird. “
In the past, rumors about the North Korean leader or his family have prompted a quick response from the authorities.
The source said the population is “scared” by even hearing rumors that Kim is dead, so everyone pretends not to know, but “everyone knows.”
Authorities are also reportedly “hunting” whoever brought a video to the country’s border region suggesting that Kim had died.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States is monitoring reports of Kim’s health, days after President Donald Trump said the leader is alive.
“We have not seen him. We have no information to report today, we are watching him closely,” Pompeo told Fox News.
Pompeo said the United States was also monitoring the situation more extensively in North Korea, which borders China, given the risk posed by the coronavirus.
“There is a real risk that there will be a famine, a food shortage, also within North Korea,” he added.
“We are closely observing each of those things, as they have a real impact on our set of missions, which ultimately denuclearizes North Korea.”
North Korea has never announced who would follow Kim in case he is disabled, and with few known details about his young children, analysts say his sister Kim Yo Jong and the loyalists could form a regency until a successor is of age. Enough to take over.
Kim Yo Jong was promoted to head of the propaganda department of the Korean Workers’ Party in October 2017.
Kim became a leader when her father Kim Jong Il died in 2011 of a heart attack.
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