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https://scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3081531/china-sends-team-including-medical-experts-advise-north-koreas
China/ Diplomacy

China sends team including medical experts to advise on North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, sources say

  • Delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left Beijing on Thursday amid reports of leader’s poor health
  • News of visit comes after Donald Trump, South Korean government play down suggestions Kim is seriously ill
A South Korean source said on Friday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was alive and would likely make an appearance soon. Photo: EPA-EFE

China has sent a team including medical experts to North Korea to advise on the hermit state’s leader Kim Jong-un, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The trip comes amid conflicting reports about Kim’s health, but Reuters was unable to immediately determine what it signalled.

A delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left Beijing on Thursday, two of the people said. The department is the main Chinese body dealing with North Korea.

The sources declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

The liaison department could not be reached for comment late on Friday. China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Friday.

Daily NK, a website based in the South Korean capital Seoul, reported earlier in the week that Kim was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on April 12. It cited one unnamed source in North Korea.

South Korean government officials and a Chinese official with the liaison department challenged subsequent reports suggesting Kim was in grave danger after surgery. South Korean officials said they had detected no signs of unusual activity in North Korea.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump also downplayed earlier reports that Kim was gravely ill.

“I think the report was incorrect,” he said, but he declined to say if he had been in touch with North Korean officials.

On Friday, a South Korean source told Reuters their intelligence was that Kim was alive and would likely make an appearance soon. The person said he did not have any comment on Kim’s current condition or any Chinese involvement.

An official familiar with US intelligence said Kim was known to have health problems but there was no reason to conclude he was seriously ill or unable eventually to reappear in public.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Fox News: “I don’t have anything I can share with you tonight, but the American people should know we’re watching the situation very keenly.”

North Korea is one of the world’s most isolated and secretive countries, and the health of its leaders is treated as a matter of state security. State media last reported on Kim’s whereabouts when he presided over a meeting on April 11.

It did not report that he was at an event to mark the anniversary of the birthday of his late grandfather, Kim Il-sung, on April 15, an important anniversary in North Korea.

Kim pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Beijing in January last year. Photo: Reuters
Kim pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Beijing in January last year. Photo: Reuters

Kim, believed to be 36, has disappeared from coverage in North Korean state media before. In 2014, he vanished for more than a month and North Korean state television later showed him walking with a limp. Speculation about his health has been fanned by his heavy smoking, apparent weight gain since taking power and family history of cardiovascular problems.

When his father, Kim Jong-il, suffered a stroke in 2008, South Korean media reported at the time that Chinese doctors were involved in his treatment along with French physicians.

Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping made the first state visit in 14 years by a Chinese leader to North Korea, an impoverished state that depends on Beijing for economic and diplomatic support.

China is North Korea’s chief ally and the economic lifeline for a country hard-hit by United Nations sanctions, and has a keen interest in the stability of the country with which it shares a long, porous border.

Kim is a third-generation hereditary leader who came to power after his father died in 2011 from a heart attack. He has visited China four times since 2018.

Trump held unprecedented summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019 as part of a bid to persuade him to give up North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.