Former Gen. Jack Keane said that while the veracity of reports regarding Kim Jong Un’s health issues has yet to be seen, it is significant that the dictator missed a “key” national holiday.
Keane, a retired four-star general and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, appeared Tuesday on Fox News to highlight the North Korean leader’s absence from his grandfather’s April 15 birthday festivities. The Day of the Sun is the most significant holiday in North Korea.
“First of all, if [Kim] missed a key holiday like this, which is the Day of the Sun — it celebrates his grandfather’s birthday who is the founder of North Korea as we know it today — that’s usually significant,” Keane said.
South Korean officials have thrown cold water on a CNN report that Kim is in “grave danger” following a surgery and have said there is no evidence that the dictator is in failing health. Despite that, Keane said that when Kim’s father Kim Jong Il missed the 60th anniversary of the country’s founding back in 2008, it was because he had a stroke, which marked a decline in the elder Kim’s health before his death in 2011.
“Usually, when something like this happens … there’s something really going on here,” the retired general said. “Whether it’s cardiovascular disease leading to a major operation and now in critical condition, we just don’t know. This is such a closed society. Certainly, our intelligence service is all over this.”
Keane said only time will tell what is going on inside the hermit nation and said that predictions of who Kim’s successor might be are difficult given the closed nature of the country. The United States reportedly has extensive contingency plans in place for when Kim dies.
National security adviser Robert O’Brien said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence was “very closely” monitoring the reports about Kim and keeping a “close eye” on the situation.
