Seoul: Days after a South Korean diplomat claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was in a coma, the communist nation has issued new photos of the reclusive leader.
State-controlled Korean Central News Agency published the new photographs of Kim. In the pictures, the North Korean leader can be seen attending a meeting of the politburo of the Workers Party. According to KCNA, during the meeting, Kim called for prevention efforts against the coronavirus and a typhoon.
Notably, the photographs released by KCNA cannot be verified for their date.Ā Chang Song-min, a former aide to South Koreaās late president Kim Dae-Jung, had claimed that Kim is in a coma and his sister Kim Yo-jong is running the government in North Korea.
“I assess him to be in a coma, but his life has not ended. 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,” Chang said in an interview according to a report by South Korean media.
Chang asserted that Kim is bedridden and unable to rule. He claimed to have gotten the information from a source in China. Chang also said thta photos of Kim released by the North Korean media in recent months were fake.
Earlier, South Korea’s intelligence agency had claimed that Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is serving as his “de facto second-in-command” but has not necessarily been designated his successor.
Ha Tae-keung, an opposition party lawmaker on parliament’s intelligence committee, told reporters that Kim was helping to run the regime with mandated authority from her brother.