Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, is dead or alive

(The Observator-)
Agencies: Media in Hong Kong reported the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The deputy director of a China-backed satellite channel in Hong Kong, the niece of the Chinese foreign minister, confirmed Kim’s death.

On Tuesday, Reuters quoted a Communist Party of China (CPC) official, following media reports on Kim’s health, as saying that “the situation of the North Korean leader is not critical.”

Informed sources told Reuters that China has sent a medical team to North Korea to advise Pyongyang as part of a follow-up to the health of leader Kim Jong Un.

The remarks came after U.S. intelligence reports announced that Kim had undergone surgery.

On Monday, CNN quoted another US source as saying that concerns about Kim’s health were credible, but it was difficult to assess her severity.

The Daily Nk, a South Korean-based online newspaper with north Korean-focused coverage, reported that Kim had conducted an “operation” – Agencies: Media in Hong Kong reported the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The deputy director of a China-backed satellite channel in Hong Kong, the niece of the Chinese foreign minister, confirmed Kim’s death.

On Tuesday, Reuters quoted a Communist Party of China (CPC) official, following media reports on Kim’s health, as saying that “the situation of the North Korean leader is not critical.”

Informed sources told Reuters that China has sent a medical team to North Korea to advise Pyongyang as part of a follow-up to the health of leader Kim Jong Un.

The remarks came after U.S. intelligence reports announced that Kim had undergone surgery.

On Monday, CNN quoted another US source as saying that concerns about Kim’s health were credible, but it was difficult to assess her severity.

The Daily Nk, a South Korean-based online newspaper with north Korean-focused coverage, reported that Kim had conducted an “operation”
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North Korean leader with army commanders during
military training on April 10, 2020 (Reuters)

U.S. and Asian decision makers are studying intelligence that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s health is in “serious danger”, after undergoing heart surgery, said Doug Pando, an aide to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

In an article in the National Trust newspaper entitled “What if Kim Jong Un dies?” noted that the North Korean leader’s absence from celebrating his grandfather’s birthday last week was the main evidence on which speculation about his health was based.

Kim Jong Un’s last public appearance came four days earlier, when he chaired a meeting of the political bureau of the ruling Workers’ Party.
A statement issued by the President’s Office in South Korea said the office had no information about rumors in some media about Kim’s health.
Who succeeds Kim?
In an effort to anticipate the future of North Korea in the event of Kim’s death or his inability to lead the country, Pando ruled out that the leader’s successor would be a member of his family, his children are still young and unknown to the public, his wife does not exercise any political power, and his brother holds a modest position in the party and shows no interest in taking office in the country.

He also ruled out that the Korean leader’s sister would be the most appropriate option to take office after him, although she plays an important political role and has recently been promoted, but she draws strength from her brother-in-law, and there is no likely to be her ability to succeed him after his death in the face of discrimination against women in politics there.

In the absence of a successor to the Korean leader from the ruling family, the writer says the battle for the leader’s seat is likely to be fierce and difficult to predict.

Kim Jong Un has been replacing party and military officials and regularly changing their positions, to minimize the likelihood of a rival, so that the appearance of a figure as the second person after him is an honor that makes his owner questionable.

The author pointed out that the absence of a clear heir to the chair of the leader gives the leaders of the security services the upper hand, but their work has been managed in a way that enables to follow each other, in order to reduce any threat they may pose to the political leadership, which means that singling out the country’s leadership will not be possible even for the most influential players.
Scenarios
Doug Pando suggested that the country’s leadership would be a group of leaders who initially shared power, noting that although this scenario, while everyone prefers it to a dictatorship based on one-man rule, it can always lead over time to a long-term conflict that destabilizes the country.

Despite clear hopes of a modernist liberal successor, that was the least likely scenario.

The best scenario for a transition in Kim’s absence, Pando said, would be an extendable transition period during which none of the leaders has the incentive to risk provoking elites and influential factions, let alone the power to impose an unwanted disarmament resolution or other reforms.

Such a scenario would render the negotiations incomplete for Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, and make their completion impossible to stop the writer.

The worst-case scenario for a transfer of power in the event of the korean leader’s death or inability to lead the country, according to Bandu, is a violent and bitter armed conflict between the parties to the North Korean political system.

This could result in large influxes of refugees into neighbouring countries, loss of control over nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and slipping into military confrontations at the border, putting pressure on both China and South Korea to intervene.

At the end of his article, Pando cited an analysis by researcher Bruce Bennett seven years ago for the Rand Corporation on the possible collapse of the North Korean regime, in which he warned that “there is a logical possibility that north Korea’s totalitarian regime will end in the foreseeable future, and that it is very likely that this end will be accompanied by a lot of violence and unrest.”

Source: National Trust