Two North Korean refugees elected to South Korea’s National Assembly last month issued extensive apologies for speculating that dictator Kim Jong-un was dead or suffering from a significant medical episode after North Korean state media published photos and video footage allegedly of Kim at a fertilizer plant.
Thae Jong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat, defected from his outpost in London and spent years building a career in South Korea as a political commentator before running for office. In South Korea’s national election on April 15, Thae became the first North Korean defector elected to the national legislature directly (the National Assembly has both directly elected and proportionally elected seats). Ji Seong-ho, raised in one of North Korea’s lowest castes, defected from the country through China and rose to prominence as a human rights activist and appeared in President Donald Trump’s 2018 State of the Union address. Ji was elected to a proportional seat in the National Assembly in April.
“I’ve been informed that Kim died last weekend,” Ji told the South Korean newswire service Yonhap in an interview published Friday. “It is not 100 percent certain, but I can say the possibility is 99 percent. North Korea is believed to be grappling with a complicated succession issue.”
Thae did not predict that Kim was dead, but that he was suffering from a severe medical issue that made his walking difficult.
“One thing that is sure is that Kim cannot stand up by himself or walk properly,” Thae said.
North Korean state media claimed that Kim Jong-un made his first public appearance since April 11 on Friday, later in the day after Ji’s interview was published. Kim reportedly appeared at an event to commemorate the construction of a fertilizer plant in Sunchon, in the north of the city. Video showed a man alleged to be Kim walking without any overt problems and cutting a ribbon at the fertilizer plant. Alongside Kim was a woman believed to be his sister, Kim Yo-jong, who was recently appointed to the nation’s Politburo and considered his likely successor should anything happen to him.
Independent sources have not been able to confirm that the man in the photos and videos is Kim, nor have any reports indicated that the man is a double.
Both Thae and Ji apologized this weekend after becoming the targets of partisan sniping. Members of the left-wing Democratic Party, which repeatedly dismissed any speculation on Kim’s health as false, demanded their apologies, and some their exclusion from national security tasks in the legislature, in response to their remarks.
“I apologize to the public (over my remarks) whatever the reason is. As I received many rebukes for the last two days, I’ve been feeling the impact of my words keenly,” Thae said in a statement Monday, according to Yonhap. “I will promise to do parliamentary activity in a more prudent and modest manner.”
“I deeply apologize to the public. I’ve been thinking about myself in the past few days. I deeply felt the weight of my post,” Ji said in his apology.
Democratic Party lawmakers used the occasion of Kim’s alleged reappearance to demand the banning of the newly minted lawmakers from national security positions in the legislature.
“You have already proven that you are not fit to serve those committees,” Kim Boo-kyum, a left-wing Democratic Party lawmaker, said in a Facebook post highlighted by the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo. “Thae and Ji already failed to respect their oath as lawmakers. They worked against ‘peaceful unification of the homeland,’ and they did not put ‘national interest first.’”
The floor spokesperson for the Democratic Party, Rep. Jung Choun-sook, also demanded the two men “repent,” according to Yonhap.
Left-wing South Korean President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly gambled his political career on bringing South Korea closer to the communist Kim regime, meeting with Kim on several occasions and earning a trip to Mount Paektu, a volcano in North Korea considered sacred in Korean mythology. His administration repeatedly dismissed reports of Kim’s ill health as “fake news” and claimed nothing “unusual” was happening in the country, according to their intelligence reports.
On Sunday, an unnamed senior official in Moon’s administration told Yonhap that there was also no evidence that Kim had undergone any surgery while away from the spotlight, contradicting at least one report from South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo that noted a small scar on Kim’s write that the newspaper claimed could be telling.
“The brown spot measuring around 0.5 cm can be spotted on Kim’s right wrist in state TV footage. It is round and clear, suggesting it was not caused by an accidental injury,” Chosun claimed, citing North Korean state propaganda images. “Some cardiovascular experts surmise that it was made by a thick needle penetrating the skin and may be the result of a coronary angiography.”
Various rumors of Kim’s illness and death began surfacing after he failed to appear at a ceremony for the “Day of the Sun,” North Korea’s most important holiday observing the birthday of Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung. CNN reported that Kim’s health was in “grave danger” after a cardiac episode. NBC News’ Katy Tur posted on Twitter that Kim was “brain dead,” without explanation, and rapidly deleted the post. Other reports claimed Kim may have been injured in a missile test or may have been infected with the Chinese coronavirus.
Unlike the North Korean defectors, American media outlets publishing the rumors have not at press time offered any apology.