World weighs up another Kim Jong-un mystery

The health of North Korea’s obese supreme leader Kim Jong-un has put East Asian governments on high alert.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is believed to be in a serious condition.

The health of North Korea’s obese supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, put East Asian governments on high alert on Tuesday, following reports the heavy-smoking 36-year-old was in a fragile condition after heart surgery.

Officials in Beijing and Seoul downplayed the reports, which came after the hereditary dictator’s mysterious absence last week from celebrations for the “Day of the Sun”, the most important holiday in the reclusive country, which marks the birthday of founder Kim Il-sung, the current leader’s grandfather.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last seen here at a political meeting in Pyongyang on April 11.

Following a sensational report on CNN that the North Korean leader was in “grave danger”, the Seoul-based news website Daily NK reported that the third generation of the Kim dynasty was ­recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving.

“Excessive smoking, obesity and fatigue were the direct causes of Kim’s urgent cardiovascular treatment,” it cited an unidentified source inside the country as saying.

The health of the dictator — a big basketball fan — is one of the closed state’s most tightly guarded secrets and a key strategic ­determinant in other East Asian capitals.

South Korea, as do other governments, keeps a close eye on his health through its security agencies.

In 2015, South Korean paper Chosun Ilbo reported that Kim’s weight had ballooned by 30kg to about 130kg, citing government sources.

Stress eating and boozing after he ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song Thaek in 2013 — two years into his reign — were cited as the reason for the weight gain. Swiss cheese is said to be a particular favourite of the “Great Successor”.

Some officials expressed doubts about the credibility of the sourcing by Daily NK — a news outfit run mostly by North ­Korean escapees — although ­denials were far from concrete, as is common for information about the notoriously secretive country.

An official in the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department — the main body that deals with its East Asian communist companion state — told Reuters the North Korean leader was “not believed to be critically ill”.

A spokesman for South Korean President Moon Jae-in also downplayed the report. “We have nothing to confirm and no special movement has been detected inside North Korea as of now,” the spokesman said.

Kim, who is popularly known in China as “Kim Fatty the Third”, a term now banned by state censors, did not appear in public for six weeks in late 2014.

He re-emerged — after a frenzy of speculation about an internal coup — supported by a walking stick in an outing broadcast on state media, which noted he had been “suffering discomfort”, speculated to be gout.

“No one knows what’s going on inside North Korea,” said ­Martyn Williams, who is affiliated with the 38 North research website.

“Kim Jong-un has been ‘missing’ before, and has always reappeared,” he said, noting the leader’s father, Kim Jong Il, was dead for several days before it was announced.

North Korea has continued to destabilise the region throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which it claims it has completely avoided due to careful government.

Last week, the pugnacious country fired its fifth volley of missiles this year, hours before South Koreans voted in their ­national election.