Posted on 04/25/2020 3:21:55 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
A North Korean defector-turned-lawmaker-elect's unconfirmed remarks regarding North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's health are raising some eyebrows, including those of a fellow defector.
In response to CNN, which broke the news on Monday that Kim was gravely ill, the government said he seemed to be dealing with state affairs as usual, adding there was no intelligence regarding rumors about his health.
However, Ji Sung-ho, who won a National Assembly seat through the proportional representation system in last week's general election, recounted to local media that his former country's leader is in a critical condition after undergoing cardiovascular surgery.
"It is true that Kim is seriously ill, so he may not come back to power," Ji said, citing a source inside North Korea.
Ji also said a succession battle is taking place in the North.
"We need to wait and see whether the leader's sister Kim Yo-jong will step in or if his wife Ri Sol-ju will take over," he added.
However, many questioned the credibility of Ji's contentious remarks.
"How can a man living in Seoul know what is happening in the North's elite class," said Kim Hong-geol, chairman of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC). The KCRC is a South Korean private group promoting inter-Korean cooperation.
"It does not make sense for a lawmaker-elect to make such unconfirmed remarks."
Thae Yong-ho, another North Korean defector who won a parliamentary seat in the election, also showed skepticism regarding Ji's statement. Thae is a former North Korean deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom.
"The supreme leader's whereabouts are protected with intense secrecy, so very few people know these details. Considering the gravity of the situation, it is impossible for (news of) his poor health to spread to the border with China."
Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the main opposition United Future Party who leads the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, told reporters that there was no intimate information to relay in regards to Kim's condition.
"Kim seems to be ill, but with no emergency manual in place, there appears to be no battle for succession," he said.
Critics say Ji, who has been an advocate for North Korean human rights after fleeing the totalitarian regime in 2006, needs to act as a lawmaker, not a human activist, when handling sensitive inter-Korean affairs.
"It is true that Ji, Thae and others have sources inside the North, but it is questionable whether they have access to such important information like Kim's whereabouts and health issues," said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University.
"They need to remain cautious in dealing with high-stakes North Korea-related issues."
Korean Peninsula PING!
Is that the guy that had his legs screwed up/amputated, whose family had to eat dirt so he could eat real food to recoop, and still has his crutches that they’re talking about?
tmz going with it
https://www.tmz.com/2020/04/25/north-korea-dictator-kim-jong-un-dead-dies-heart-surgery-reports/
Just found this gem -
Kim Jong-un’s ex-girlfriend executed in pornography scandal (2013)
https://nypost.com/2013/08/29/kim-jong-uns-ex-girlfriend-executed-in-pornography-scandal/
Thanks.
I thought this girl got killed in Kill Bill . . .
Fat Kim had never been fatally ill before, until one morning last week, he woke up dead.
“How can a man living in Seoul know what is happening in the North’s elite class,” said Kim Hong-geol, chairman of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC). The KCRC is a South Korean private group promoting inter-Korean cooperation. “
The KCRC is a known political habitat of mouth pieces for the dictatorship in North Korea, masquerading as mere Korean “nationalists” in favor or “reconciliation”. In North Korean political terms, “reconciliation” means capitulation by South Korea, militarily, politically, one or the other or both.
Yep! And current South Korean president is of that ilk!
“How can a man living in Seoul know what is happening in the North’s elite class,” said Kim Hong-geol, chairman of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC). The KCRC is a South Korean private group promoting inter-Korean cooperation. “
The KCRC is a known political habitat of mouth pieces for the dictatorship in North Korea, masquerading as mere Korean “nationalists” in favor or “reconciliation”. In North Korean political terms, “reconciliation” means capitulation by South Korea, militarily, politically, one or the other or both.
Thank you Wuli. This is in keeping with my relatives' observations from the ground in S. Korea as well. :) President Moon Jae In unfortunately is of this ilk.
Yep; that too. And I actually think he is worse, like more closely aligned with Beijing than the dictators in NK. He is like other Korean leaders from the distant past, who feared China so much that they considered it better for their country to be vassal of the emperors in Beijing.
A Korean leader that did not see it that way was the leader that brought about the Korean script/alphabet and teaching the use of that script, and its use throughout education - to begin to dispense with the use of written Chinese. He then terribly upset the Chinese when he had Korea observatories built, had Korean astronomers plot the courses of the stars and planets in the sky and had the official Korean astrologers throw out the Chinese calendar & zodiac and chart ones unique to Korea, in Korean. Even the Japanese of that day never went that far to divorce themselves from those cultural hand-me-downs from China.
Many weak Korean kings often looked to suzerainty under the Chinese as a hedge against other neighbors - better to be a little guy under the protection of China’s emperors than all alone. Others sought to stand out and be more independent with their challenges, like with Japan frequently.
It is my guess that if the early industrial modernization period in Asia had been with China and not Japan, the early 20th century would have seen the occupation of Korea by China, not Japan.
My time spent in South Korea in the 1960s, left my heart feeling like it will always be my “2nd country”. I may have left there when I had to come back to the states, but it has remained as a constant interest, as well as a continuing study of its current affairs, to me.
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