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A North Korean defector says he is ’99 percent certain ‘that Kim Jong Un is dead, saying Pyongyang may announce the news this weekend.
Ji Seong-ho told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency that he had been “informed that Kim died last weekend” after cardiovascular surgery.
The defector said Kim’s sister Kim Yo-jong was online to succeed her brother, but said the secret state was “dealing with a complicated succession problem.”
Kim has not been seen in public since April 11 and his absence has sparked a wave of speculation about his health, but Seoul and Washington have downplayed claims that he is seriously ill or dead.
State-controlled media in North Korea have provided no definitive proof that Kim is alive, beyond reports of letters sent on his behalf.
However, there was a sign of life today as Daily NK reported that the regime had issued a directive signed by Kim himself, the first in two weeks.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un (pictured in March this year) has not been seen in public since April 11, prompting rumors that he is seriously ill or dead.
Experts have suggested that Kim’s sister Kim Yo-jong (photographed in Pyongyang in September 2018) could be online to succeed her brother if necessary.
Ji, a defector who was elected to the southern parliament earlier this year, is the last to suggest that Kim may have died after heart surgery.
I have wondered how long I could have endured after cardiovascular surgery. I have been informed that Kim died last weekend, ‘he said.
‘It is not 100 percent certain, but I can say that the possibility is 99 percent. North Korea is believed to be dealing with a complicated succession issue. ”
Pyongyang has never released succession plans, but experts say Kim’s sister has been the most visible presence around the dictator in recent years.
She was named alternate member of the powerful Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party last month.
North Korea is the most reserved country in the world, and reports of Kim and her family, including the suggestion that she recently had heart surgery, are nearly impossible to verify.
However, other defectors have cast doubt on whether such sensitive information would ever escape Kim’s inner circle.
Senior party and government officials celebrate the 108th anniversary of founder Kim Il-Sung’s birth in Pyongyang on April 15, a ceremony that Kim Jong-un inexplicably missed.
Some deserters say that their relatives in North Korea did not know that Kim had been absent from public view for three weeks.
One said that people had been talking about Kim’s whereabouts in very private circles after he did not appear in a ruling party masterpiece on April 15.
Kim’s unprecedented absence from the Sun Day ceremony honoring his grandfather Kim Il-Sung sparked widespread speculation about his well-being.
“I spoke to my sister and my niece this morning and they had no idea about these reports and rumors about Kim Jong Un’s health,” said a defector, Lee Soon-hee.
‘When I told them, they were very cautious in discussing it. North Koreans have very limited knowledge of these things. Lee defected south in 2009.
The North Koreans are well aware that they could face punishment for arguing about the Kim family, said Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea, a group that works with defectors.
“That doesn’t mean that people don’t take that risk, some people do,” Park said. “But it is still a very sensitive issue.”
“It is a bit as if the Pope did not appear at Christmas,” he said of Kim’s absence from the April 15 celebrations.
A 250-meter-long train belonging to the dictator has been seen near the Wonsan holiday complex on Thursday in satellite photos.
South Korean officials say they have not detected any “unusual movements” north of the DMZ.
The South minister in charge of North Korean affairs said Tuesday that fear of the coronavirus could have kept Kim away from the April 15 ceremony.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said yesterday: “I understand what is happening, I cannot speak about him at the moment, just hoping that everything is fine.” But I do understand the situation very well. ‘
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he was aware of reports on Kim’s health and that he was paying close attention to developments.
Still, experts say it’s odd that North Korea did not post a healthy-looking image of Kim if the rumors aren’t true.
Official media has not provided any verifiable proof of life since April 11, other than reporting that it had sent messages to North Korean workers and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Another defector-turned-politician, Thae Yong-ho, warned that only a small handful of people would know the full story.
He also warned that clues to Kim’s whereabouts, such as an apparent sighting of his personal train in the city of Wonsan, could be deliberate diversionary tactics.
Pyongyang officials know the train can be seen from satellites and have previously dispatched it across the country to confuse strangers, Thae said.
The train sighting was followed by more satellite images of Wonsan showing ships that Kim and his entourage used frequently.
