North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has reportedly fallen into a coma and has ceded over some of his power to his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong.
According to Chang Song-min, a former aide to late-South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, who made this known the North Korean leader has become seriously ill, the Mirror reports.
Song-min believes North Korea is hiding the truth about their leader’s health despite reports that Kim was pictured just a few days ago.
Pictures emerged last Thursday, August 20, showing Kim attending a government meeting but news outlet Reuters said it could not “independently verify” the images as they were released by the secretive country.
Chang Song-min told South Korean media; “I assess him to be in a coma, but his life has not ended.”
The former aide added that the leader’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, was poised to help lead the country, stressing;
A complete succession structure has not been formed, so Kim Yo-jong is being brought to the fore as the vacuum cannot be maintained for a prolonged period.
His claims come after South Korean spies revealed that the 33-year-old sibling to the Supreme leader now serves as his “de facto second-in-command,” though she has not been designated his successor.
In a closed-door meeting with lawmakers, National Intelligence Service said the power shift partly seeks to “relieve (Kim’s) stress from his reign and avert culpability in the event of policy failure,” the Yonhap News Agency reports.
The agency stated;
Kim Yo Jong, the first vice department director of the Workers’ Party Central Committee, is steering overall state affairs based on the delegation.
Kim has only been seen in public a handful of times this year after rumors swirled that he was clinging to life in April due to a botched heart operation.
Read Also: North Korea Leader Kim Jong Un Makes First Public Appearance Nearly Three Weeks After Death Rumours
However, the rumors were later rubbished when the dictator was pictured at the opening of a fertiliser factory 30 miles north of capital Pyongyang.
