The Known Unknowns of Kim Jong-un ’s Rumored Illness

Eric GomezReports and speculation about Kim Jong-un ’s failing health offer an excellent opportunity to examine several characteristics of the U.S.-North Korea relationship. Specifically, the rumors about Kim’s health is a sobering reminder of all the things that Americans don ’t know about North Korea.The most obvious takeaway from Kim ’s potential health crisis is the difficulty of having accurate information about what is going on in North Korea. The silence of North Korean officials and state media on Kim’s health has not helped provide concrete answers. Kim might be gravely ill, but other high‐​ranking North Korean off icials have disappeared from public view only to turn up fine later. There have also been instances where the supreme leader has been deathly ill in secret while the outward facing parts of North Korean government and society continue normally. Kim Jong-un’s father, for example, suffered a massive stroke in August 2008 that was kept hidden from the rest of the world for several months.One of the positive potential outcomes of Donald Trump ’s controversial decision to meet with Kim in leader‐​to‐​leader summits was the information about Kim that such meetings could bring to light. The conversations that Kim and Trump had at the summits, both official negotiations and informal banter, offered potential insight about Kim’s p ersonality, thinking, and priorities that would be very difficult to determine without that kind o...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs