South Korean government sources on Tuesday said that the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, was not "gravely ill", shortly after US media floated reports suggesting that Kim had undergone a cardiovascular procedure and was now in "grave danger".
According to a report by a Seoul-based publication, Daily NK, citing unidentified sources inside North Korea, it appears that Kim Jong-un is now recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan on the east coast after undergoing the cardiovascular procedure at a hospital on April 12.
Several South Korean media reports also corroborated that the speculations over Kim's supposed "grave health" conditions were fueled by the fact that the North Korean leader was absent from a key anniversary event earlier this month.
Speculation has been rife about what happened to Kim since he apparently skipped an annual visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on the occasion of the 108th birthday of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il-sung on April 15.
Kim was last seen on April 11 in state media reports presiding over a political bureau meeting of the ruling Workers` Party, calling for "strict national countermeasures to thoroughly check the infiltration of the virus".
Earlier this day, US news media CNN reported that Kim was in "grave danger", citing unnamed US officials who reportedly told the publication that "the concerns about Kim's health are credible but the severity is hard to assess."
However, soon after this, the South Korean government's Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said that it was looking into US media reports, which later stated that the Supreme Leader in the North was not "gravely ill".
An authoritative US source familiar with internal US government reporting on North Korea also questioned the CNN report, according to Reuters, even though he has been out of the public eye for an extended period.
Reporting from inside North Korea is notoriously difficult, especially on matters concerning the country's leadership, given tight controls on information. Credible information about North Korea and especially its leadership is difficult to obtain, and even intelligence agencies have been wrong about its inner workings in the past.
Meanwhile, the Korean Won fell 1.54% to trade at 1,239.35 per dollar on Tuesday. The South Korean markets also saw sizable declines, with the Kospi down 2.62% while the Kosdaq index fell 3.47%. Shares of defense firm Victek skyrocketed 29.66% while North Korea exposed stocks Hanil Hyundai Cement and Hyundai Elevator plummeted more than 6% each.
Kim Jong-un took over as the Supreme Leader of North Korea after his father and late leader Kim Jong-il died in late 2011.
