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By Dana Kennedy
April 25, 2020
Kim Jong UnKCNA VIA KNS/AFP via Getty Image
Kim Jong Un is rumored to be dead, according to a Hong Kong broadcast network, while a Japanese magazine is reporting that North Korea’s rocket man is in a “vegetative state” after he underwent heart surgery earlier this month.
A vice director of HKSTV Hong Kong Satellite Television, a Beijing-backed broadcast network in Hong Kong, claimed that Kim was dead, citing a “very solid source.” Her post on the Chinese messaging app Weibo has been shared widely on social media, according to a report in the International Business Times.
Other unconfirmed reports, attributed to senior party sources in Beijing, said an operation to insert a stent went wrong because the surgeon’s hands were shaking so badly.
April 24, 2020
AFP via Getty Images
China has sent a team of medical experts and diplomats to North Korea in a visit somehow related to the health of Kim Jong Un.
A report in Reuters cites three people familiar with the situation, and comes as the health of Kim remains shrouded in mystery, with rumors swirling about his condition.
The team left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday and is being led by a senior official from the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department.
It is unclear what the delegation was sent to accomplish.
A South Korean source told Reuters on Friday that their intelligence was that Kim was alive and planning an appearance in public soon.
Still, conflicting stories emerged this week following reports that the dictator was in critical condition after undergoing heart surgery.
Earlier reports Friday said Kim may have left the capital of Pyongyang to recover, sheltering in an undisclosed location on North Korea’s eastern coast to avoid catching the coronavirus.
President Trump said he didn’t believe dispatches that Kim is gravely ill — but declined to say if he had been in contact with the North Korean leader.
“I think the report was incorrect,” the president said during Thursday’s daily White House briefing, adding that he had heard it was based on “old documents.”
With Post wires
