Is Kim Jong-un ill? Reports shine light on North Korea’s rumour mill

In a coma, recovering from heart surgery, or barely ill at all: listen to the media and any one of these could describe the North Korean leader’s state

Conflicting claims say much about the gaps in the outside world’s attempts to understand the hermit kingdom

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Rumours are swirling over the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: AP

Published: 7:30pm, 21 Apr 2020Updated: 10:11pm, 21 Apr 2020

Within the span of a few hours on Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was reported to be in “grave danger” after undergoing heart surgery, then brain-dead, and then not seriously ill at all. By the end of the day, Kim’s actual condition remained no clearer amid a flurry of anonymously sourced reports offering contradictory claims about his health.

Against a backdrop of speculation fuelled by the young dictator’s absence from state media since April 11, at least three competing narratives emerged: Kim was gravely ill, perhaps in a coma or even dead, according to unnamed US officials; Kim was not seriously ill, according to unnamed South Korean government officials; and Kim had undergone heart surgery but there was no suggestion he was in a critical condition, according to an anonymously sourced South Korean news report.

The only clear takeaways were the enduring opacity of the North, which maintains the tightest of grips on information, and a reminder of the extraordinary extent to which the outside world relies on unnamed sources, rumours and outright speculation to understand the dynastic Kim regime.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks at the ground-breaking ceremony of a general hospital in Pyongyang in March. Photo: AP

“Too often stories are based on single anonymous sources and in the pressure to scoop the competition – or not get left behind – rumours are reported before further investigation can be done to check the veracity of claims,” said Jenny Town, deputy director of 38 North, a programme of the Washington-based Stimson Centre dedicated to analysing North Korea. “For a system as segmented and stovepiped as North Korea’s political infrastructure, there are many reasons to question unnamed, unidentified sources from within the North Korean government, much less anonymous sources in other countries as well.”

On Tuesday morning, CNN, citing an anonymous US official, reported the White House was “monitoring intelligence” that Kim was in “grave danger” following surgery. The report cited a second unnamed official saying Washington was “closely monitoring reports on Kim’s health”.

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