THE mystery surrounding the health of Kim Jong-un took a new twist today after neighbouring South Korea insisted the missing despot is “alive and well.”
President Moon Jae-in’s foreign policy advisor poured cold water on reports Kim had died by claiming he is actually staying at his holiday palace on the North Korean coast.
“Our government position is firm…..Kim Jong-un is alive and well, ” Chung-in Moon told Fox News.
“He has been staying in the Wonsan area since April 13. No suspicious movements have so far been detected.”
His claims came as a train was was spotted at Kim’s private railway station near to his holiday home in the resort.
A US-based project which monitors the rogue state has released satellite images of the locomotive parked in the resort town of Wonsan.
38 North said the train was parked at the “leadership station” between April 21 and April 23.
The station is reserved solely for the use of the Kim family, it added.
“The train’s presence does not prove the whereabouts of the North Korean leader or indicate anything about his health but it does lend weight to reports Kim is staying at an elite area on the country’s eastern coast,” the report concluded.
The Sun Online previously told how it was believed Kim travelled to the exclusive beach resort after people around him tested positive for the coronavirus.
The dictator reportedly left the capital Pyongyang on his private train and headed to his luxury holiday compound.
Kim, 36, opted to head to the Wonsan-Kalma peninsula, on the east coast of the country, after members of his inner circle fell ill, Korean outlet Ichannela reported.
Japanese newspaper The Sansei suggested that Kim had fled Pyongyang because of coronavirus spreading in the densely populated capital city.
However, other rumours are circulating in the region that the overweight tyrant “collapsed and died” while on a visit to the countryside.
The US are closely monitoring the situation as China dispatched a medical team in an attempt to find out the truth from the highly secretive nation.
It followed days of speculation over the health of the tubby 36-year-old, not seen publicly for two weeks.
Chinese journalist Shijian Xingzou said a “very solid source” told her the North Korean leader had died.
She has 15 million followers on Chinese social media site Weibo, and she is also the niece of one of the the country’s foreign ministers.
Separately, a Japanese media outlet claimed Kim was in a “vegetative state” after undergoing heart surgery.
Weekly newspaper Shukan Gendai claimed he was visiting the countryside when he clutched his chest and collapsed.
A member of his entourage gave CPR and escorted him to hospital.
But the dictator was left severely ill after a delayed or botched procedure to fit a stent in an artery, it was claimed.
Another report from Beijing claimed that the heart op went wrong because the terrified surgeon’s hands kept shaking.
Kim was last seen on April 11 at a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party to discuss the coronavirus threat.
On Tuesday Daily NK, an online newspaper based in South Korea, claimed the surgery was on April 12.
It forced him to miss the national birthday celebrations of his late grandfather and North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung.
US national security adviser Robert O’Brien confirmed on Wednesday the Trump administration was monitoring the reports on Kim’s health “very closely”.
But South Korean officials reported no unusual activity within its neighbour, and President Trump later said he thought the reports of Kim’s ill-health were “incorrect”.
It is unclear what would happen if Kim — in charge of North Korea since 2011 — is sidelined by health problems or dies.
North Korea has yet to give any meaningful indication of who would succeed him as leader.
His sister Kim Yo-jong would most likely emerge as a possible leader, but there could be a violent power struggle in a country where internal dissent is crushed.
China, one of North Korea’s few allies globally, dispatched a specialist medical team to help in the leader’s care on Thursday.
The delegation is thought to have been led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, an agency charged with conducting relations with and influencing states and groups outside China.
Experts have also warned that the power vacuum left could result in an ugly civil war involving rival military units within the North Korean army.
An official familiar with US intelligence said that Kim was known to have health problems but they had no reason to conclude he was seriously ill or unable eventually to reappear in public.
President Trump, who met Kim in 2018, also sought to downplay reports of his poor health.
“I think the report was incorrect,” he told reporters, though he declined to say if he had been in touch with North Korean officials.
Kim’s health has been subject to much speculation – with the dictator believed to weigh 20 stone while standing 5ft 6in.
This would give him a BMI of 44.9 and classification of morbidly obese.
Intelligence services have claimed Kim is a prolific binge eater, drinker and smoker – all having major impacts on his health, including reports he has diabetes.
He has an allegedly legendary appetite, gorging himself on Swiss cheese and other rich food while drinking as many as ten bottles of wine in a night.
The rotund ruler has also previously battled gout, and is said to at times need to walk with a cane.
Both his dad Kim Jong-il and granddad Kim Il-sung died of heart attacks.
And while people crack jokes about Kim’s weight battle, around 40 per cent of North Korea’s population is undernourished.
It is estimated one in five children born under the dictator’s regime at stunted due to malnutrition.
North Korea remains silent, and its likely the world will not know for sure whether he is dead or ill until it is announced on the secretive regime’s carefully controlled state TV.
Speaking on Friday, a South Korean government source reiterated that their intelligence was that Kim was still alive and should be making an appearance soon.
