President Donald Trump on Thursday continued his series of cryptic comments on the health and well-being of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
The president’s words have given no insight into Kim’s state. The North Korean leader hasn’t been seen in public in nearly three weeks and iss been rumored to be dead, alive, or in a vegetative state.
‘I understand what is going on, I cannot just talk about him right now, just hoping that everything will be fine. But I do understand the situation very well,’ Trump said Thursday at the White House.
President Donald Trump continued his series of cryptic comments on the health and well-being of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un
Kim has been rumored to be dead or alive or in vegetative state; he was last seen above on April 11
President Trump and Kim Jong Un have become close; the two met in June 2019 at the Demilitarized Zone
Trump, the first American president to met with a North Korean leader, has a warm relationship with Kim, who he has met with twice. The leaders have also exchanged letters and Trump, at point, said he ‘fell in love’ with Kim.
But now the dictator’s medical condition is unknown, raising questions about the stability of government in Pyongyang and the security of the country’s nuclear weapons.
Trump has remained coy about what he knows.
‘I can’t tell you exactly. Yes I do have a very good idea,’ Trump responded when asked about it. ‘But I can’t talk about it. I just wish him well. I’ve had a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un,’ he said earlier this week at a press conference.
North Korea is a difficult country for intelligence agencies to penetrate given its police state and near isolation from the rest of the world.
South Korea’s government has said Kim is alive and is handling state affairs normally at an unspecified site outside the capital. But the country hasn’t cited its sources.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said officials ‘haven’t seen’ Kim since April 12, when he was inspecting North Korea‘s Air Force units.
‘We haven’t seen him. We don’t have any information to report today, we’re watching it closely,’ Pompeo told Fox News on Wednesday.
‘We’re watching each of those things closely, as they have a real impact on our mission set, which to ultimately denuclearize North Korea.’
Speculation concerning Kim’s health began to gain momentum after he failed to turn up at the celebration of his grandfather’s birthday on April 13, one of the country’s biggest calendar events.
It marks the first time he has ever missed the celebration.
South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, who oversees engagement with North Korea, said it was plausible Kim that decided against attending due to the coronavirus, given stringent steps his government has taken to head off an outbreak.
‘He had never missed the anniversary for Kim Il Sung’s birthday since he took power, but many anniversary events including celebrations and a banquet had been canceled because of coronavirus concerns,’ the minister told a parliamentary hearing.
‘I don’t think that’s particularly unusual given the current (coronavirus) situation,’ the minister said, although North Korea has said it has no confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
In this Wednesday, July 25, 2012 photo released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) , North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju, right, waves to the crowd
There were reports that Kim underwent a cardiovascular procedure or had decamped to avoid the coronavirus.
Kim is overweight, reportedly smokes heavily and has other health problems.
Kim, who is in his mid-30s, was last seen in public on April 11, when he presided over a meeting discussing coronavirus prevention and electing his sister as an alternate member of the political bureau of the ruling Workers´ Party.
His sister, Kim Yo Jong, believed to be in her thirties, was turfed out of the dictator’s inner circle when she was blamed for last year’s bungled talks with Trump.
But following an extensive publicity drive to curry favour, she returned.
Talks between Washington and Pyongyang collapsed in February 2019 when President Trump pulled out of a much anticipated Hanoi summit to discuss denuclearization.
Kim pinned the blame on his younger sister, who was swiftly removed from her post.
Since she was cast out into the cold, Kim Yo Jong has steadily built back her public profile by appearing in videos with her brother – one even shows the pair riding horses in the snowy mountains.
Kim Jong-Un’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong (left) is rumored to replace him if he dies
Kim Yo Jong (left, handing a document to Mike Pompeo), believed to be in her thirties, was turfed out of the dictator’s inner circle when she was blamed for last year’s bungled talks (first summit in Singapore pictured) with Donald Trump
Kim Yo Jong acted as her brother’s envoy to the South at the time of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018, which ushered in a rapid diplomatic rapprochement on the divided peninsula
On Monday, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Kim sent a message of gratitude to workers building tourist facilities in the coastal town of Wonsan, which is where some speculate he is staying. No photos of him were published.
South Korean intelligence and North Korean state media reports suggest that Kim could have suffered some sort of medical setback but likely not a life-threatening one, said Du Hyeogn Cha, a senior researcher at Seoul´s Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
The root problem may be the shaky nature of South Korean intelligence.
Finding out is important because incapacity at the top could lead to bogged-down decision-making that could boost the hard-liners who emerged following the collapse of Kim´s second summit with Trump in February last year.
The Americans at that summit rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of the North’s nuclear capabilities.
The National Intelligence Service, Seoul´s spy agency, has said it can´t confirm whether Kim had surgery. If Kim emerges well in state media, he would join past North Korean officials who were incorrectly reported incapacitated by outside media.