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Here’s What We Know About 
Kim Jong Un’s Health Situation

Intelligence agencies and journalists are scrambling to verify a report 
claiming the North Korean leader is “gravely ill” after heart surgery.


By David Gilbert

Apr 21 2020, 6:07am





The world is scrambling to figure out whether a report claiming 
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “gravely ill” after 
heart surgery is true.

There was fevered speculation among U.S. media outlets late 
on Wednesday, that Kim was “gravely ill” or “brain dead” after 
the surgery but those claims have since been toned down 
after both Chinese and South Korean intelligence officials 
said there was no evidence to back them up.

The North Korean regime is typically highly secretive, 
but at a time when all borders are closed due to fears of 
importing coronavirus, there is even less information coming 
out of the country.

This is not the first time Kim’s health has been the cause 
of speculation. In 2014 he disappeared for 40 days 
sparking rumors he had been ousted in coup, only to 
reappear holding a cane.

“It is doubtful that we can have reliable intelligence on 
the top leader’s health situation from the most secretive 
country in the world,” Baohui Zhang, director of the Centre 
for Asian Pacific Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, 
told VICE News. “There have been many rumors about 
North Korea’s elite politics and they later turned out to be false.”

What do we know?

The first report that Kim had undergone heart surgery came 
on Monday from NK Daily, a website run by North Korean defectors. 
An anonymous source told the outlet that Kim had undergone 
heart surgery on April 12, at the Hyangsan Medical Center, 
a dedicated hospital used only by the Kim family located 
north of the capital Pyongyang.

The report was picked up by news agencies early on Tuesday 
but without additional confirmation.

Then the story took a sensational turn when CNN reported, 
based on information from anonymous U.S. intelligence 
sources, that Kim was in “grave danger.” 
The report subsequently changed to say U.S. intelligence 
officials were monitoring reports that Kim was gravely ill.


NBC went further by tweeting that Kim was “brain dead.” 

The network quickly deleted the tweet, saying the decision 
was made “out of an abundance of caution.” 
A similar claim was being shared widely in South Korea 
over the weekend.

Later on Tuesday, South Korea and Chinese intelligence 
sources appeared to pour cold water on the speculation, 
claiming that there were no signs that Kim was in 
danger — though neither side denied that the 
North Korean leader had undergone heart surgery.

When was Kim last seen in public?

Kim was last seen on April 11, when he presided over a 
meeting of the ruling party Politburo, ahead of a session 
of the country’s rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly 
the next day. Kim did not attend the SPA session on April 12, 
but that was expected as he is not a deputy anymore.

On April 14 the country conducted cruise missile tests. 
Kim would typically oversee such tests but, a week later, 
there are still no official pictures or state media reports 
about the launch.

Rumors about Kim’s whereabouts really picked up on April 15 
when he was absent from the celebrations to mark the 
country’s most important holiday, the birthday of Kim Il Sung, 
North Korea’s founder. State media failed to report 
whether Kim attended the ceremony at the 
Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.

But on Monday, North Korea’s state-run news agency 
reported that Kim had sent “a congratulatory message to 
Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez, president of 
the Republic of Cuba.”


What now?



With the borders closed and less information than ever 
getting out of the country, everyone from journalists to 
national security officials and North Korea analysts are 
now trying to find ways to establish what the situation 
really is.

“We have no information to confirm regarding rumors 
about Chairman Kim Jong Un’s health issue that have 
been reported by some media outlets. Also, no unusual 
developments have been detected inside North Korea,” 
a spokesman for South Korea’s presidential office 
said in the statement.

South Korean officials told AP they believe 
Kim is staying at an unspecified location outside of Pyongyang 
with some of his close confidants adding that Kim appeared 
to be conducting state affairs as normal and there 
weren’t any unusual movements or emergency reactions 
from the North’s ruling party, military, or cabinet.

An official with the Chinese Communist Party’s 
International Liaison Department, the main Chinese 
body dealing with Pyongyang told Reuters they 
believe Kim is not critically ill.

The White House said it was aware of the reports about 
Kim’s health being precarious before they appeared in 
the media, but would not say where the information 
came from. An official told AP the U.S. had information 
that Kim may have undergone surgery and that 
complications may have rendered him “incapacitated or worse.”

Inside North Korea on Tuesday schools reopened after 
being closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, and one 
source in Pyongyang told NK News that there 
“nothing unusual for the time being.”

However, it’s worth noting that the North Korean public 
would typically be shielded from any information 
about Kim’s health.

Who takes his place?

If anything were to happen to Kim, one of the problems 

facing the country is that there is no clear successor in place.

Kim was groomed from a young age by his father Kim Jong Il 
to lead the country, but because Kim has no adult children 
of his own — he reportedly has a 7-year-old daughter — it 
would likely be Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who would be 
first in line to take control.

She has become her brother’s closest confidant and her 
position within the ruling Workers’ Party has become 
more important in recent months.

Last month, she made her first public statement, 
condemning the South as a “frightened dog barking” 
before publicly praising President Donald Trump for 
sending Kim a letter pledging support in fighting the 
coronavirus pandemic.

“If Kim is seriously ill or his mortality is being seen as 
probable, his sister is likely to want to be the successor,” 
Steve Tsang, director of London's SOAS China Institute, 
told VICE News. “As she is not an anointed successor 
already groomed and thus in a good place to assert 
leadership if Kim Jong Un should die, [it] remains to be 
seen if she will be embraced by the rest of the establishment.”