Pyongyang, North Korea — The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un is reported to be in coma.
While quoting a former aid of the late president, several media outlets have said that the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo-jong will be exercising de facto control over national and international matters while the president is in coma.
Chang Song-min, who served as a political affairs secretary and head of the state affairs monitoring office for Kim Dae-jung posted in social media, claiming that no North Korean leader would entrust any of his authority to another person unless he was too sick to rule or was removed through a coup.
“I assess him (Kim Jong Un) to be in a coma, but his life has not ended,” he was quoted as saying by The Korea Herald.
“A complete succession structure has not been formed, so Kim Yo-jong is being brought to the fore as the vacuum cannot be maintained for a prolonged period,” he added.
Chang has also claimed that he has secured the information from a source in China that Kim is “comatose.”
His claims come months after the North Korean leader had not made a public appearance amid speculations of his deteriorating health.
Kim Jong Un was last seen presiding over a Workers’ Party politburo meeting on April 11. This was before a top security adviser of the South’s President Moon Jae-in downplayed rumours and said Kim Jong Un was “alive and well”.
He was later then seen while cutting a ribbon at the opening of a fertilizer factory on May 2, KCNA reported.
However, Chang claims that all of the photographs of Kim that were realesed by North Korea in the recent months were fake.
