North Korea's Kim alive and well, says South's security aide

SEOUL • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "alive and well", a top security adviser to the South's President Moon Jae-in has said, downplaying rumours over Mr Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary.

Conjecture over Mr Kim has grown since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the North's founder - the most important day in the country's political calendar.

"Our government position is firm," Mr Moon Chung-in, a special adviser on national security to the South Korean President, told CNN in an interview on Sunday. "Kim Jong Un is alive and well."

The adviser said that Mr Kim had been staying in Wonsan - a resort town in the country's east - since April 13, adding: "No suspicious movements have so far been detected."

Mr Kim has not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers' Party politburo meeting on April 11, and the next day state media reported on him inspecting fighter jets at an air defence unit.

His absence at the April 15 event unleashed a series of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, which officials in Seoul previously poured cold water on.

South Korea's Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul yesterday reiterated that that remained the case, adding that the "confident" conclusion was drawn from "a complex process of intelligence gathering and assessment".

The comments came two years after Mr Kim and Mr Moon's first summit in the Demilitarised Zone that divides the Korean peninsula.

Seoul marked this anniversary with a ceremony at the South's northern-most train station, seeking to highlight its commitment to a cross-border railway project.

But inter-Korean relations are largely frozen with talks between Washington and Pyongyang at a standstill, and there was no indication of any commemoration in the North.

Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, has reported that Mr Kim was undergoing treatment after a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month. Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Mr Kim, who is in his mid-30s, had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.

Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was "monitoring intelligence" that Mr Kim was in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery, quoting what it said was an anonymous US official.

Yesterday, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that Mr Kim had sent a message of thanks to workers on the giant Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism project. It was the latest in a series of reports in recent days of statements issued or actions taken in Mr Kim's name, although none has carried any picture of him.

Satellite images reviewed by 38North, a US-based think-tank, showed a train probably belonging to Mr Kim at a station in Wonsan last week. It cautioned that the train's presence did not "indicate anything about his health" but did "lend weight" to reports that the North Korean leader was staying on the country's eastern coast.

Dr Andrei Lankov, director of Korea Risk Group, said all reports should be "taken with a grain of salt", but noted Mr Kim's disappearance was unusual.

"So for some reason, he is not really capable to act publicly," Dr Lankov said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE