North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “alive and well,” a top security adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumors about Kim’s health following his absence from a key anniversary.
Conjecture over Kim has grown since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the North’s founder — the most important day in the nation’s political calendar.
“Our government position is firm,” Moon Chung-in, special adviser to the South Korean president for foreign affairs and national security, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “Kim Jong-un is alive and well.”
Photo: AP
The adviser said that Kim Jong-un had been staying in Wonsan — a resort town in the nation’s east — since April 13.
“No suspicious movements have so far been detected,” he added.
Kim Jong-un has not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers’ Party politburo meeting on April 11, and the following day state media reported on him inspecting fighter jets at an air defense unit.
His absence unleashed a series of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, which officials in Seoul previously poured cold water on.
“We have nothing to confirm and no special movement has been detected inside North Korea as of now,” the South’s presidential office said in a statement last week.
South Korean Minister of Unification Kim Yeon-chul yesterday reiterated that remained the case, adding that the “confident” conclusion was drawn from “a complex process of intelligence gathering and assessment.”
The comments came two years after Kim Jong-un’s and Moon Jae-in’s first summit in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula.
Seoul marked this anniversary with a ceremony at the South’s northernmost train station, seeking to highlight its commitment to a cross-border railway project.
However, inter-Korean relations are largely frozen, with talks between Washington and Pyongyang at a standstill.
North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper yesterday reported that Kim Jong-un had sent a message of thanks to workers on the giant Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism project.
It was the latest in a series of reports in recent days of statements issued or actions taken in his name, although none has carried any picture of him.
Korea Risk Group director Andrei Lankov said all reports should be “taken with a grain of salt,” but added that Kim Jong-un’s disappearance was unusual.
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