Kim Jong-un is ALIVE and well and is staying at posh Wonsan resort, claims South Korean official
Shortly after reports of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's death, the mystery took another twist on Sunday, April 26, after South Korean officials insisted that the despot was "alive and well".
The foreign policy advisor of the South Korean President Moon Jae-in rubbished reports of the North Korean dictator's death, saying that Kim was instead staying in his holiday resort on the North Korean coast.
Chung-in Moon, while talking to Fox News, said: "Our government position is firm...Kim Jong-un is alive and well. He has been staying in the Wonsan area since April 13. No suspicious movements have so far been detected."
The South Korean officials' claims came after a train was spotted at Kim's private railway station near to his holiday home in the resort. A US-based project, which monitors the hermit nation, on Saturday, April 25, released satellite images of Kim's personal train parked in the North Korean resort town of Wonsan. Reports state that the train was parked at the "leadership station" — solely reserved for the use of the dictator's family — in Wonsan between April 21 and April 23.
"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 said.
Reports had also emerged earlier this week that the North Korean leader had recently traveled to an exclusive beach resort after people around him tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Kim, according to the reports, had left the capital on his private train and headed to the Wonsan-Kalma peninsula last week, where the dictator has a private villa.
Kim opted to go to the villa on the east coast of North Korea after some members of his inner circle fell ill, according to Korean outlet Ichannela, the Sun reported. The report was backed by Japanese newspaper The Sanei, which suggested that Kim had fled Pyongyang because of the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus cases in the densely populated city.
The latest reports of Kim's ill health or possible death emerged after a South Korean outlet, Daily NK, claimed that Kim had undergone a cardiovascular system procedure in North Pyongyang on April 12 because of "excessive smoking, obesity and overworking". US media, a week later, reportedly received a tip from an intelligence official that the dictator was indeed in a critical condition.
A former North Korean deputy ambassador to Britain who defected to South Korea in 2016, Thae Yong-ho, said that it was unusual for the Pyongyang state media to remain silent considering it has been quick to dispel questions about the status of its leadership in the past. An official with the Ministry of Unification in South Korea on Thursday, April 24, said that the absence of his recent pictures from state media was unusual but more time was needed to see what is going on.
Kim's health came under scrutiny after he gave a miss to an annual visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun for the 108th birthday of his late grandfather, state founder Kim Il-sung, last week, on April 15.