Kim Jong-un isn’t the first of North Korea’s leaders to ‘disappear’: a look back

Some absences were caused by real trouble, including deaths, illness or purges. But frequently the so-called disappearances were anything but

Cutting through the speculation and rumours is difficult amid the thick cloak of secrecy that surrounds the isolated, nuclear-armed nation’s leadership

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, pictured with his wife Ri Sol-ju, centre, and aunt Kim Kyong-hui, third from left, in January. Photo: KCNA via AP

Published: 9:00pm, 28 Apr 2020Updated: 9:00pm, 28 Apr 2020

While Kim Jong-un’s two-week absence has inspired speculation and rumours that he is gravely ill, he is not the first member of North Korea’s ruling elite to disappear from public view.

Some absences were caused by real trouble, including deaths, illness or purges. But frequently the so-called disappearances have simply shown the disconnect between insatiable curiosity about what’s happening inside the isolated, nuclear-armed nation and the thick cloak of secrecy surrounding its leadership.

Here are some past cases of missing North Korean officials and when reports about the demise of leaders were premature:

Kim Il-sung

Before his death in 1994, there was arguably no person South Koreans hated and feared more than North Korea’s state founder Kim Il-sung. His forces launched a surprise attack on the South in June 1950, triggering a devastating war that drew massive intervention by the United States and China and killed and injured millions of people before an armistice halted fighting three years later.

He also dispatched commandos in a failed attempt to assassinate the South Korean president in 1968 and sent agents to plant bombs that killed 21 people, including several South Korean cabinet ministers, during a presidential visit to Myanmar in 1983.