Chinese medical team said to travel to N. Korea amid rumors about Kim’s health
China reportedly sent a team of medical experts to North Korea to give advice about North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who is said to be experiencing health issues after undergoing surgery.
According to a Reuters report Saturday, the delegation left for North Korea on Thursday and was headed by a senior official from the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, which plays a leading role in Beijing’s ties with Pyongyang.
The news agency said it was unclear what the trip meant in regards to Kim’s wellbeing.
China is North Korea’s key diplomatic backer and main provider of trade and aid. North Korea is under heavy international sanctions due to its nuclear and missile programs.
Questions about Kim’s health flared after he skipped an April 15 commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. It’s North Korea’s most important event, and Kim, 36, hadn’t missed it since inheriting power from his father in late 2011.
Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, said Kim had undergone a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month triggered by heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.
CNN also quoted a US official as saying Kim was in “grave danger” after surgery.
South Korea has played down the reports, while US officials including President Donald Trump have declined to discuss Kim’s condition.
Kim has been out of the public eye for extended periods in the past, and North Korea’s secretive nature allows few outsiders to assert confidently whether he might be unwell, let alone incapacitated. Still, questions about the North’s political future were likely to grow if he fails to attend upcoming public events.
Quoting a South Korean source, Reuters reported that intelligence indicated Kim was alive and was likely to soon make a public appearance. It also quoted an official familiar with US intelligence saying that while Kim has health issues, there was nothing indicating he was very sick or that he would be unable to appear publicly in the future.
Kim is the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, and a strong personality cult has been built around him, his father and grandfather. The family’s mythical “Paektu” bloodline, named after the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula, is said to give only direct family members the right to rule the nation.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview Wednesday that he had met Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong, whose recent elevation in the hierarchy raised pundits’ view that she could be a successor.
“I did have a chance to meet her a couple of times, but the challenge remains the same — the goal remains unchanged — whoever is leading North Korea,” Pompeo told Fox News.
He also said the US will keep seeking North Korea’s denuclearization no matter who is in charge in Pyongyang.
Pompeo flew to North Korea four times in 2018 as he arranged historic summits between Trump and Kim after more than a half century of enmity between the two countries.
But hopes for a breakthrough before US elections in November have dimmed, with North Korea firing off rockets and the United States refusing Pyongyang’s demands for sanctions relief before full denuclearization.