US President Donald Trump cast doubts on reports that North Korea’s leader had fallen severely ill after a surgery, taking a jab at CNN’s journalistic chops while nonetheless sending well wishes to Kim Jong-un.
“So I just have to say to Kim Jong-un, I wish him good luck,” Trump said at a White House briefing on Tuesday, noting he has a “very good relationship” with the North Korean leader but stressing “I don’t know that the reports are true.”
They came out with very, very serious medical reports, nobody’s confirmed that. It was CNN. When CNN comes out with a report, I don’t place too much credence in it.
The president was asked to comment on rumors circulating in American and South Korean media alleging that Kim is currently in “grave danger” after undergoing heart surgery. The claim was first made in Daily NK, a Seoul-based outlet focused on North Korean news, and was later echoed by CNN’s Jim Sciutto, who reiterated the rumor citing a “US official with direct knowledge.”
Both reports – which were soon amplified across major Western media outlets – remain unconfirmed, and officials in Seoul and Beijing have since rebuffed the rumors, with South Korean sources telling Reuters and Yonhap they’d seen “no unusual signs” in terms of Kim’s health, and that the leader had been in the public eye “until recent days.” The ruling Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department also denied the CNN ‘scoop,’ stating that Kim was not, in fact, unwell.
A number of more far-fetched theories have also emerged about Kim’s health, with the conservative One America News Network (OANN) claiming that he not only had a heart operation, but that a “Chinese doctor flown in to help” with the surgery had infected the leader with the coronavirus, according to “multiple US officials.” Like the others of its kind, that claim has also seen no confirmation.
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