SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean and Chinese authorities on Tuesday cast doubt on reports North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was ill after media outlets stated he had actually undergone a cardiovascular procedure and remained in “severe danger,” while U.S. authorities carefully monitored the situation.
Daily NK, a Seoul-based speciality website, reported late on Monday, citing one unnamed source in North Korea, that Kim was recuperating after going through the treatment on April12 The North Korean leader is thought to be about36
” We’re keeping an eye on these reports really closely,” U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, informed Fox News in an interview on Tuesday.
Asked about how political succession would operate in North Korea, O’Brien, according to footage aired by CNN, said: “The standard presumption would be maybe it would be someone in the household. Again, it’s too early to talk about that since we just do not understand what condition Chairman Kim is in and we’ll have to see how it plays out.”
In recent years Kim has actually launched a diplomatic offensive to promote both himself as a world leader and his reclusive, nuclear-armed state, holding three meetings with Trump, 4 with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and five with China’s President Xi Jinping.
Trump has explained Kim as a good friend but the unmatched engagement by a U.S. president with a North Korean leader has failed to slow Kim’s nuclear weapons program, which now threatens the United States.
Kim is the undisputed leader of North Korea and the sole leader of its nuclear arsenal. He has no clear follower and any instability in the country could be a major global risk.
2 South Korean federal government authorities turned down an earlier CNN report pointing out an unnamed U.S. authorities saying Washington was “keeping track of intelligence” that Kim was in serious threat after surgery, but they did not elaborate on whether Kim had undergone surgery. The presidential Blue Home stated there were no unusual sign