On Saturday, Japanese publication Shukan Gendai quoted sources within Kim Jong Un's team to report that the North Korean supreme leader collapsed during a visit to a rural area, and a botched operation to insert a stent left Kim in a "vegetative state". Fox News reported that the surgeon in charge of Kim’s operation was not used to dealing with obese patients and was too nervous during the operation. Now, Reuters has reported that China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader. "A delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday. The department is the main Chinese body dealing with neighbouring North Korea," Reuters reported.
With North Korea saying nothing so far about outside media reports that leader Kim Jong Un may be unwell, there's renewed worry about who's next in line to run a nuclear-armed country that's been ruled by the same family for seven decades. 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.
North Korea's state media on Wednesday published some past comments by Kim but didn't report any new activities, while rival South Korea repeated that no unusual developments had been detected in the North. 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 are likely to grow if he fails to attend upcoming public events.
