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| North Korea leader's sister Kim Yo-jong, center, smiles at U.S. President Donald Trump during the second U.S.-North Korea summit in February 2019 in Vietnam. Yonhap |
By Do Je-hae
The state of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's health is triggering speculation although Seoul said earlier that there was nothing untoward going on with him.
Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun and other news outlets reported Wednesday on the possibility of Kim's sister Kim Yo-jong taking over as supreme leader in the case of an emergency regarding his health.
Citing sources from South Korea, U.S. and Japan, the Yomiuri reported that North Korea's ruling Workers' Party had made a decision late last year during a general assembly of the party's central committee to focus "all authority" on Kim Yo-jong if her brother became unable to rule due to unforeseen circumstances or his death. The Japanese report added that since then, many instructions and statements have been issued in her name.
Some news outlets in the United States and U.K. are also highlighting the possible transfer of power to Kim Yo-jong as part of the North Korea's contingency plan regarding a possible leadership vacuum.
But Cheong Wa Dae and the government were reluctant to comment on such reports. "We are not in a position to speak about his whereabouts or whether he underwent surgery. We have already said that we have not detected anything out of the ordinary," a senior presidential aide said Wednesday.
Kim's sister, who is known as one of the North Korean leader's closest aides, was recently promoted and last month started to make official statements. On March 3, she issued a statement targeting Cheong Wa Dae to express disappointment about Seoul's protest of a live-fire exercise by the North. The hostile tone of the statement was considered surprising given that she has often acted as the North Korean leader's envoy to the South.
North Korean state media has been silent about the reports on its leader's health, which some experts find unusual. In the past, it actively reported on Kim's activities to prove that such reports were wrong.
"The unification ministry said that it did not find anything out of the ordinary, but the fact that Kim missed the celebration for his grandfather itself is out of the ordinary," said Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), who chairs the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, during an emergency meeting at the Assembly, Wednesday. "The lack of a reaction from North Korea should also be noted." Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Unification Minister Kim Yeon-cheol were supposed to attend the meeting but later cancelled their participation.
Tae Ku-min, a former high-level diplomat from the North who recently won a National Assembly seat on the UFP's ticket, also questioned the silence from the North Korean media. "Due to the nature of the regime, North Korea has always taken steps to show that its leader is alive and well whenever controversies about his health emerged," Tae said in a statement Tuesday. "It is very unusual that North Korea has not responded even a week after the abnormal circumstances regarding Kim were first reported."
Earlier, some international news outlets including CNN reported that Kim was "gravely ill" after undergoing an unspecified medical procedure. The reports came after he was noticeably missing in the April 15 annual commemoration of the birth of Kim Il-sung, his grandfather and state founder.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that he doesn't put "too much credence" in the report by CNN. "I'd like to see him be well, and we'll see how he does. Again, I don't know that the reports are true," Trump said in a news briefing.
The U.S. administration is closely looking into intelligence that Kim may be seriously ill. "We are watching the reports closely and we will have to see," U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien told reporters at the White House. "As everyone here knows, the North Koreans are parsimonious with the information that they put out about many things, especially when it comes to their leaders and so we will keep a close eye on it."
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