Kathrine Frich
People claim he was flewn to China for urgent care.
When powerful figures govern behind tightly locked doors, even a brief silence can set off global alarm bells.
Observers track every public outing for clues about what is happening inside the palace walls.
Now, a week-long vanishing act has sparked wild claims online.
Emergency flight to Beijing
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has not been seen in public since touring a Pyongyang defence museum on October 11, according to the Daily Express.
That seven-day absence has fuelled unverified social media posts claiming he suffered a brain bleed and was flown to China for urgent care because North Korean hospitals lacked the right equipment.
Wanjun Xie, who chairs the China Democracy Party, shared the claims on X. He wrote:
“It is rumoured that recently, Kim Jong-Un … suffered a severe cerebral haemorrhage and fell into a coma. Although a team of medical experts from Peking Union Medical College Hospital was dispatched to North Korea to assist in his treatment, the poor medical conditions in North Korea forced Kim Jong-Un to be transferred to Peking Union Medical College for emergency treatment.”
Xie even claimed the leader had “succumbed to his injuries and died … due to the severity of his condition”. Another social media account posted:
“His body is currently being secretly transported back to North Korea without public announcement.” Similar death rumours swirled in 2020 when Kim vanished for months, and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has noted he weighs over 140kg, describing him as “extremely obese” and at high risk of heart trouble, the Daily Express reported.
Who takes the crown
If Kim is gone, analysts cited by the Daily Express expect his 38-year-old sister, Kim Yo-jong, to step in temporarily.
She is already famous for fiery outbursts against foreign leaders, once telling former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to “shut his mouth” while calling him “really simple and childish”, and branding former US President Joe Biden an “old man with no future” in 2023.
She would likely hold power until Kim’s 13-year-old daughter, Kim Ju-ae, comes of age after joining her father on major trips like last year’s visit to China.
One source told The Sun: “When we think about her upbringing and training to be a core North Korean elite, then we know from her father and grandfather that she will be playing the bloodsport of politics. That will require her to cashier disloyal aides through violent means. It’s a job requirement for the leader.”
Violence has long defined her father’s rule.
According to the Daily Express, Kim ordered firing-squad executions and bloody purges of hundreds of officials, including his uncle Chang Song-thaek in 2013 and the 2017 nerve-agent killing of his half-brother Kim Jong Nam in Malaysia.
