North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not undergo surgery, according to a South Korean official.
A senior South Korean presidential official told reporters Sunday that the country’s assessment is that Kim did not have surgery, as has been reported recently while the dictator was absent from the public eye for weeks.
Video released by North Korea showed Kim reemerged for the first time since early April on Saturday, visiting a factory near Pyongyang. Prior to his appearance, reports circulated indicating that his health was in “grave danger” after he underwent heart surgery. After footage of his reemergence was released, some still raised questions about his health, citing moments when his walking looked off at the factory.
“There were speculative reports that Chairman Kim underwent a surgery citing some difference to his walk,” the Blue House official was cited as saying. “We have reasons to believe that there was no surgery, but cannot disclose such details.”
South Korea has continued to pour cold water on speculation that Kim’s health was failing, insisting that he was “alive and well” in the Wonsan area and suggesting that he was simply hiding out during the coronavirus pandemic. Some U.S. officials have been investigating reports that Kim was unwell, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was mum on Sunday when pressed on the matter.
“We’ve seen the same images from yesterday that the world saw. It looks like Chairman Kim is alive and well. Regardless of any of that, our mission has remained the same. To convince the North Koreans to give up their nuclear weapons,” he said on ABC’s This Week.
“I just can’t say anything about that,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells @MarthaRaddatz when asked if Kim Jong Un had been “gravely ill” during the weeks that the North Korean leader was out of public view. https://t.co/sLSKoZFK1N pic.twitter.com/y1wxly23Hw
— ABC News (@ABC) May 3, 2020
“I just can’t say anything about that,” he added when asked if he knew whether Kim was ever “gravely ill.”
