SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean officials emphasise they have spotted no unusual movements in North Korea and care against reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might be ill or is being separated since of coronavirus concerns.
At a closed-door online forum on Sunday, South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, who manages North Korea engagement, said Seoul had the intelligence abilities to state with confidence there were no indications of anything unusual.
Rumours and speculation over Kim Jong Un’s health began after he did not appear in public at a key state vacation on April15 He has because stayed out of sight.
Experts have cautioned that Kim has vanished from state media coverage in the past, and that collecting accurate details in North Korea is hard.
South Korean media recently reported that Kim may have undergone cardiovascular surgical treatment, or remained in isolation to avoid exposure to the coronavirus.
Marriage Minister Kim cast doubt on the report of surgical treatment, arguing that the hospital discussed did not have the capabilities for such an operation.
Still, Yoon Sang-hyun, chairman of the foreign and marriage committee in South Korea’s National Assembly, told a gathering of professionals on Monday that Kim Jong Un’s absence from the general public eye suggests “he has not been working as normally”.
” There has actually not been any report revealing he’s making policy decisions as typical considering that April 11, which leads us to presume that he is either sick or being isolated since of coronavirus concer