SEOUL/WASHINGTON--South Korean and Chinese officials and sources familiar with U.S. intelligence on Tuesday cast doubt on reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is gravely ill after a cardiovascular procedure, while the White House said it was closely monitoring the matter.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who held unprecedented summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019 in an attempt to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons, said the reports had not been confirmed and he did not put much credence in them.
"I just hope he's doing fine," Trump told a White House news conference. "I've had a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un. And I'd like to see him do well. We'll see how he does. We don't know if the reports are true."
Asked whether he would try to reach out to Kim to check on his condition, Trump said: "Well I may, but I just hope he's doing fine."
Daily NK, a Seoul-based website, reported late on Monday that Kim, who is believed to be about 36, was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on April 12. It cited one unnamed source in North Korea.
Two South Korean government officials rejected a subsequent CNN report citing an unnamed U.S. official saying that the United States was "monitoring intelligence" that Kim was in grave danger after surgery. South Korea's presidential Blue House said there were no unusual signs from North Korea.
Earlier, Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, told Fox News the White House was monitoring the reports "very closely."
Bloomberg News quoted an unnamed U.S. official as saying the White House was told that Kim had taken a turn for the worse after the surgery. However, authoritative U.S. sources familiar with U.S. intelligence questioned the report that Kim was in grave danger.
A Korea specialist working for the U.S. government said, "Any credible direct reporting having to do with Kim would be highly compartmented intelligence and unlikely to leak to the media."
Kim is a third-generation hereditary leader who rules North Korea with an iron fist, coming to power after his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011 from a heart attack. Reporting from inside North Korea is notoriously difficult, especially on matters concerning its leadership, given tight controls on information. There have been past false reports regarding its leaders, but the fact Kim has no clear successor means any instability could present a major international risk.
Asked about how any North Korean political succession would work, O'Brien said, "The basic assumption would be maybe it would be someone in the family. But, again, it's too early to talk about that because we just don't know what condition Chairman Kim is in and we'll have to see how it plays out."
Trump said he had asked Kim about the succession in the past but declined to elaborate. With no details known about Kim's young children, analysts said Kim's sister and loyalists could form a regency until a successor is old enough to take over.
