Skip to main content

Trump thinks report was incorrect on illness of North Korea's Kim Jong Un

WASHINGTON (ITNTV) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threw more cold water on reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was gravely ill, but declined to say if he had been in touch with officials there.
“I think the report was incorrect,” Trump said at a daily White House briefing, adding that he had heard it was based on “old documents.”
Trump had said on Tuesday that he might contact North Korean officials to inquire about Kim but gave no indication on Thursday he had done so. The two leaders have had regular communications over the past couple of years.
“We have a good relationship with North Korea, I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un and I hope he’s okay,” Trump said.
Daily NK, a Seoul-based website, reported on Monday that Kim, who is believed to be about 36, was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on April 12. It cited one unnamed source in North Korea. The state-controlled media in North Korea has been silent on Kim’s whereabouts.
ADVERTISEMENT
Two South Korean government officials rejected a subsequent CNN report citing an unnamed U.S. official saying that the United States was “monitoring intelligence” that Kim was in grave danger after surgery.
On Tuesday, Trump, who held unprecedented summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019 in an attempt to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons, said the reports had not been confirmed and he did not put much credence in them.
Kim is a third-generation hereditary leader who rules North Korea with an iron fist, coming to power after his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011 from a heart attack.
The U.S. government’s latest information on the North Korean leadership is that Kim still remains out of sight and there is a dearth of reliable information about the reasons for his absence, according to a source familiar with current intelligence reporting and analysis.
Slideshow (2 Images)
U.S. officials acknowledge Kim does have a history of health problems and is overweight, and say that this does at least raise a credible possibility he has suffered some kind of health crisis, the source said.
But they do not regard theories that Kim has had a heart attack or some other serious health setback as confirmed, and said he has disappeared from public view for extended periods in the past.
U.S. government experts do not believe Kim’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, is a shoo-in to succeed him were he to die. They believe there is “no clear” designated successor in the event that Kim dies, the source said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

European Union will close its borders to all non-essential travel to fight coronavirus

Madrid (ITNTV) The European Union will close its borders to all non-essential travel as it attempts to contain the  ongoing spread of the coronavirus  on the continent. "The less travel, the more we can contain the virus," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday following a video conference between G7 leaders. She appeared confident that the European Council would sign off on the restriction in a Tuesday vote. The bloc's member states imposed aggressive measures on Monday,  days after the  World Health Organization (WHO) said Europe was at the epicenter of the pandemic. French President Emmanuel Macron declared "war" on the virus during a national address on Monday, banning all social events across the country -- including family gatherings. Macron said those who have gathered in public places in recent days have not been respecting previous measures to limit the outbreak's spread in France, which as of Monday had 5,380 con...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kennedy granddaughter, great-grandson missing in Chesapeake Bay

(ITNTV) - The granddaughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy and her young son were missing on Friday after drifting out into the Chesapeake Bay on a canoe, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said. An intensive search continued for Maeve Fahey Townsend, and her son Gideon, Hogan said. Maeve Townsend is the daughter of former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and the granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while a candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1968. “I reached out to and spoke with Lieutenant Governor Townsend this morning and on behalf of the people of Maryland I expressed our most heartfelt sympathies,” Hogan said in a briefing posted online. The Anne Arundel County Fire Department, one of the agencies searching for Townsend and her son, said it had received a call on Thursday at about 4:30 p.m. local time, reporting that two people in a small canoe or kayak were drifting into Chesapeake Bay. Rescuers w...
Post a Comment
Read more

US uses encrypted app to connect with Iranians as coronavirus sweeps their country

Washington (ITNTV) The State Department is using social media to encourage Iranians to share information with the Trump administration -- both on an encrypted tip line and through an online survey -- about the  coronavirus pandemic  that is devastating the country. "This is Iran's Chernobyl," said one administration official of the outbreak, who described social media portals as a tool to bypass the Iranian regime and connect to the country's people. The US began encouraging Iranians to use the encrypted messaging app last year, when Iranian demonstrators took to the streets and US officials wanted to learn more about the regime's bloody crackdown. Now, with Covid-19 devastating Iran, the tip line has been reinvigorated, administration officials told CNN. This time, the goal is to collect information from Iranians, find ways to share that information when it is determined to be accurate and leverage the coronavirus in an effort to fortify a relationship ...
Post a Comment
Read more