Kim Jong-un barely escaped assassination attempts by North Korean military in 2018, claims Japanese admiral
Kim Jong-un barely survived an assassination attempt in 2018, it has been claimed. According to the former chief of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces, four North Korean assassins were discovered by South Korean officials hiding in a fishing boat that was en route to Japan.
Speaking to the Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai, Japanese Self-Defence Forces’ Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, threw light on the alleged assassination attempt. According to him, the dramatic incident was suppressed in the media among headlines detailing a "dispute between a South Korean warship and a Japanese patrol aircraft," The Sun reported. Kawano said South Korean officials deployed a guided-missile destroyer to the Wonsan-Kalma region after receiving intelligence from the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong, located near the border.
According to the report, the Wonsan-Kalma region was frequented by Kim prior to the coronavirus pandemic. It is home to a lavish new beach resort that is currently under construction. "Attempts by the North Korean military to assassinate Chairman Kim Jong-un in the Wonsan-Kalma region had been unsuccessful," the defense-force chief told the magazine. "Four people escaped that day and were headed to Japan by sea."
The North Korean dictator's half-brother was the victim of an assassination in 2017. Some reportedly believe it was ordered by Kim himself, but it hasn't been confirmed. Malaysian authorities noted how Kim Jong-nam was killed using one of the deadliest chemical weapons known to man -- the nerve agent VX -- which was found on swabs taken from his face. It is said that one drop of the compound is enough to kill a human. In fact, two suspected female assassins fell seriously ill following the deadly encounter at Kuala Lumpur airport, The Sun reported.
Jong-nam was killed on February 14, 2017, while he was waiting to board a flight to Macau to visit his family, per a South Korean government source cited by The Sun. According to the report, the assassins allegedly smeared his face with the lethal agent. Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong are currently facing trial for their alleged roles in murdering the brother of North Korea's Supreme Leader. Both women could hang if convicted.
Last month, rumors resurfaced that Kim was in a coma. TMZ reported that Chang Song-min, a former aide to the late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, recently told South Korean media that Jong-un is in a coma but not deceased, based on the intel he’d received. The aide continued, "A complete succession structure has not been formed, so his younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, is being brought to the fore as the vacuum cannot be maintained for a prolonged period." According to the same report, North Korea's own National Intelligence Service (NIS) mentioned that although Kim still is the “absolute power" he would gradually begin to transfer authority to Kim Yo-jong to "ease stress."
In April, rumors over Kim's death ran commonly in media portals after Jong-un suddenly disappeared and did not show up in the public sphere until May where he was pictured after attending the completion of a fertilizer plant in the capital, Pyongyang. Back in 2014, the leader did not appear in public for six weeks after which the state media reported that he was suffering from an "uncomfortable physical condition". And in 2009, concerns loomed over his ill health floated online that suggested he was a diabetic and suffered from hypertension.