Exclusive: China sent team including medical experts to advise on North Korea's Kim - sources

 

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks as he takes part in a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 11, 2020. KCNA/via REUTERS

 

BEIJING/SEOUL (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.

 

The sources declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

 

The Liaison Department could not be reached by Reuters for comment late on Friday. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Friday.

 

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.

 

South Korean government officials and a Chinese official with the Liaison Department challenged subsequent reports suggesting that Kim was in grave danger after surgery. South Korean officials said they had detected no signs of unusual activity 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."

 

North Korea is one of the world's most isolated and secretive countries, and the health of its leaders is treated as a matter of state security. Reuters has not been able to independently confirm any details on Kim's whereabouts or condition.

 

North Korea's state media last reported on Kim's whereabouts when he presided over a meeting on April 11. State media did not report that he was in attendance at an event to mark the birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on April 15, an important anniversary in North Korea.

 

Kim, believed to be 36, has disappeared from coverage in North Korean state media before. In 2014, he vanished for more than a month and North Korean state TV later showed him walking with a limp. Speculation about his health has been fanned by his heavy smoking, apparent weight gain since taking power and family history of cardiovascular problems.

 

When Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, suffered a stroke in 2008, South Korean media reported at the time that Chinese doctors were involved in his treatment along with French physicians.

 

Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping made the first state visit in 14 years by a Chinese leader to North Korea, an impoverished state that depends on Beijing for economic and diplomatic support.

 

China is North Korea's chief ally and the economic lifeline for a country hard-hit by U.N. sanctions, and has a keen interest in the stability of the country with which it shares a long, porous border.

 

Kim is a third-generation hereditary leader who came to power after his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011 from a heart attack. He has visited China four times since 2018.

 

Trump held unprecedented summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019 as part of a bid to persuade him to give up North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.

 

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom, Hyonhee Shin, Steve Holland, Mark Hosenball, David Brunnstrom)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-26

 

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Donald,sent his opinion to N.Korea on how to treat his very good friend

Kim, and good dose of bleach,with just a few cc's of Dettol,he will be

right as rain in no time.

regards Worgeordie

Hope they took enough disinfectant.

11 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure

that sound like 'all is well' ?

I think this team of medical experts are tasked with trying to remove a ballistic missile from his posterior...

The wife recieved a video yesterday ,saying that he had died ,and today in the newspapers there are lots of rumours that he has ,

I for one hope the little murderous turd dies a painful death and the whole country falls. 

3 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

The wife recieved a video yesterday ,saying that he had died ,and today in the newspapers there are lots of rumours that he has ,

what newspapers  ?  what video ? link please or are you just spreading fake news. 

Just now, steven100 said:

what newspapers  ?  what video ? link please or are you just spreading fake news. 

daily mail online ,does not say its true just reports on the fact that there are rumors that he has ,  get it now RUMORS 

7 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

daily mail online ,does not say its true just reports on the fact that there are rumors that he has ,  get it now RUMORS 

yeah ... I read the South Korea & Fox news, and it's Japan who says Kim Jong Un is in a ' vegetative state '

 

 

Edited April 26, 20206 yr by steven100

Translation,the Chinese sent in a transition team the little murderous sob is dead good!may he rot in hell personally I’d like the south to lift them out of the darkness 

lil rocketman might have had a stent implanted.  maybe he had a massive heart attack.  possibly could have had a hemorrhoid removed.  who knows?  anonymous sources.

 

jinkies!  even the "fact" of china dispatching a medical team is evidence-free, also according to "sources."

 

until they bring the body out on a forklift, i'll assume he's sheltering in place until the vaccine arrives.  and if the chinese indeed did send a medical team, what are the odds it was related to virus containment?

17 minutes ago, Tug said:

Translation,the Chinese sent in a transition team the little murderous sob is dead good!may he rot in hell personally I’d like the south to lift them out of the darkness 

I told them the Chinese traditional medicine, juice extracted from pangolin, is the best cure. Let's hope for the best.

16 minutes ago, Tug said:

Translation,the Chinese sent in a transition team the little murderous sob is dead good!may he rot in hell personally I’d like the south to lift them out of the darkness 

would be nice but the Chinese will never allow.

Looks like the world would be a better place without that fatty

 

But if it't true that he is dead

I wonder what other monster the Chinese would pull out of their pocket

2 minutes ago, Retarded said:

Let's hope for the best.

what do you mean with that?

(I'm having some idea)

Edited April 26, 20206 yr by sweatalot

There’s only one thing to worry about in the matter of this murderous thug being gravely ill.

 

Which murderous thug will replace him if he croaks?!

China would probably love to buddy up with North Korea.  A possible place to export things to, get money from etc.  And if a regime change happens, one can only imagine what China would do. 

When hes gone they will find another clone. 

43 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

There’s only one thing to worry about in the matter of this murderous thug being gravely ill.

 

Which murderous thug will replace him if he croaks?!

Surprised to see Kim being described as a thug, by posters that openly support socialist regimes. Was Kim the "wrong kind" of socialist leader? I can't think of any time a country went full on lefty socialism and it didn't end up with one brutal thug in charge and the population cowering in fear from him. Cuba, Venezuala, Red China, North Korea. That, my friend, IS socialism. 

 

 I suspect if Kim really did die, China will essentially take over the country. China has been doing a lot of bad things lately. Again, typical for a socialist dictatorship. 

... yes be logical for them to divert all annexation away from Taiwan and HK (well they might have grips pon the land, but not the people) 

 - and take NK.

 

They can then increase their nuclear arsenal,

by a further 0.00000001%   

 

Hope the team brought in a lot (of barrels) of embalming disinfectant. He would need a sizeable shark (whale) tank, to be put on display...  The tank would have a 240V lead coming out of it - to keep the (he's still alive everyone!) skin pulsation displays going

 

 

  

3 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

There’s only one thing to worry about in the matter of this murderous thug being gravely ill.

 

Which murderous thug will replace him if he croaks?!

The other problem is a country with nuclear weapons, with no clear way forward. Nuclear power with generals fighting who is the toughest of them all to get the authoritarian power. 

 

Killing Saddam and Gaddafi didn't end up well but in chaos. And those countries didn't have nuclear weapons. 

4 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

China would probably love to buddy up with North Korea.  A possible place to export things to, get money from etc.  And if a regime change happens, one can only imagine what China would do. 

China will be in there quicker than lightning. Can you imagine the strategic importance to them as well as the location.  

4 hours ago, sweatalot said:

I wonder what other monster the Chinese would pull out of their pocket

Rumors are that his sister, Kim Yo Jong, is ready to take over. For those of us familiar with Asian women, God help us all! We're doomed. Though, with apologies to my own sweet Muffin, I may possibly be speaking only for myself.

5 hours ago, YetAnother said:

that sound like 'all is well' ?

Down to the report of an accident occurring because of the surgeons shaking hands.....

CCP and NK—birds of a feather...

Both secretive, totalitarian, murderous regimes.

Kim Jong Gone????

6 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

There’s only one thing to worry about in the matter of this murderous thug being gravely ill.

 

Which murderous thug will replace him if he croaks?!

Most likely, his sister

 

1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

Down to the report of an accident occurring because of the surgeons shaking hands.....

Read that. Apparently the doctor was very nervous while implanting a stent and pierced a blood vessel. I guess when you know you will be fed to hungry dogs if you make a mistake, you would be nervous as well. 

Kim was said to be over 300 lbs. at 5.5 ft, smoked 4 packs a day, drank heavily, diabetes, family history of heart disease and high blood pressure. Surprised he had a heart attack at age of 36??? Oh well, Lady Karma bites back hard.

I think the strain of keeping up that haircut was too much for his heart.  Another casualty of style.  What next can the strangest country on Earth bring us?  

7 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

I think this team of medical experts are tasked with trying to remove a ballistic missile from his posterior...

Or put one up there