Kim Jong-un is in a coma, but he’s not dead: that’s a rumor that has been spreading far beyond the Korean peninsula since last week. But can that really be true?
There have been many speculations about the health of the North Korean dictator in the past. In April it was even said Kim Jong-un may have died, which in retrospect turned out to be wrong. The latest rumors that the 36-year-old ruler are said to be in a coma are no surprise either. It can be doubted that there is really anything to it.
The South Korean diplomat Chang Song-min provided the reason for the current speculations. The former advisor to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung reported on Facebook about the alleged health problems Kim Jong-uns last week. He told reporters who approached him about his report, “I guess he’s in a coma, but he’s not dead yet.”
Reconstruction of the state leadership in Pyongyang
In his speculations, Chang Song-min essentially referred to an assessment by the South Korean secret service that Kim Jong-un passed part of his powers to his sister Kim Yo Young and other close confidants. During a non-public briefing in Parliament in Seoul the state intelligence service called Kim Yo Jong “de facto leader number two”, the national news agency Yonhap reported.
From now on, the Vice-Chairman of the powerful State Affairs Commission in North Korea, Pak Pong Ju, and the new Prime Minister Kim Tok Hun control the economic sector. Two more party cadres for the military would have also been given more powers. How the secret service came to its assessment remained unclear. North Korea is one of the most isolated countries.
Chang Song-min: Doesn’t go with North Korea
According to Chang Song-min, the personnel rochades did not fit into a system like the North Korean one, in which all power is centered on a godlike leader. Something like this is only conceivable “if Kim were in bed and in a state where he could no longer rule, or if there had been a coup”.
Chang Song-min does not provide any more concrete evidence for his speculations. In addition, he is left alone with his assessment; there are no other sources reporting the same. It also does not fit in with pictures that the North Korean news agency KCNA had only published last week. They show Kim Jong-un at a meeting of the Central Committee of the North Korean Workers’ Party. The young ruler leads the meeting and appears to be otherwise in good health.
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