Reports of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un being in poor health, and/or dead, have been swirling for days. President Trump said he did not trust the initial media reports and Secretary Mike Pompeo said “we’re watching the situation very keenly.”
Reuters is reporting today that China sent a team including doctors into North Korea to assist Chairman Kim; again, depending on the actual status of the DPRK leader, the delegation could mean a rather large difference in what’s going on.
China controls North Korea; it is simply part of their cunning geopolitical strategy to use the DPRK for their own interests and simultaneously have plausible deniability for it. In essence Chairman Kim is the hostage of Chairman Xi Jinping, and the world has a poor understanding of the complexity created by this dynamic.
If Kim Jong-un is in a very serious physical state (and/or dead) then the visit by the Beijing delegation would likely be to establish the terms and conditions for his successor. Again, another captive for the Chinese regime that must present an entirely different face to the world. Hopefully this is not the issue and Chairman Kim will recover.
(Reuters) – China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.
The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean leader. Reuters was unable to immediately determine what the trip by the Chinese team signaled in terms of Kim’s health.
A delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday, two of the people said. The department is the main Chinese body dealing with neighbouring North Korea.
[…] Daily NK, a Seoul-based website, reported earlier this week that Kim was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on April 12. It cited one unnamed source in North Korea.
[…] On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump also downplayed earlier reports that Kim was gravely ill. “I think the report was incorrect,” Trump told reporters, but he declined to say if he had been in touch with North Korean officials.
On Friday, a South Korean source told Reuters their intelligence was that Kim was alive and would likely make an appearance soon. The person said he did not have any comment on Kim’s current condition or any Chinese involvement.
An official familiar with U.S. intelligence said that Kim was known to have health problems but they had no reason to conclude he was seriously ill or unable eventually to reappear in public.
[…] A U.S. State department spokeswoman had no comment. U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, when asked about Kim’s health on Fox News after Trump spoke said, “I don’t have anything I can share with you tonight, but the American people should know we’re watching the situation very keenly.” (more)
It’s worth remembering when President Trump went to the DMZ to meet with Kim, Fox News host Tucker Carlson had exclusive access. After the event, Carlson noted Chairman Kim seemed remarkably unfit and was gasping for breaths after walking with the President….
….Given the status of U.S. -vs- China relations (we are in an undeclared cold war); and accepting the massive geopolitical dynamic currently taking place around the Wuhan Virus (perhaps an economic weapon in that war); any destabilizing outcomes within North Korea carry much larger significance….
We live in very interesting times.
