The official state newspaper of North Korea, Rodong Sinmun, appeared to confirm this week that communist dictator Kim Jong-un had suffered a Chinese coronavirus infection at some unspecified time this summer.
Rodong Sinmun claimed that Kim suffered a “high fever,” a term typically used by the regime to refer to the disease, after coming into contact with frontline workers while inspecting pharmacies and other health sites. The newspaper did not indicate that Kim – believed to be 38 years old but with a history of being overweight, a condition linked to worse outcomes from coronavirus infections – required hospitalization or any other care for severe illness.
The state newspaper’s revelation that Kim endured “high fever” followed his sister, top North Korean official Kim Yo-jong, revealing last month in a speech that her brother had similarly endured a “fever” but could not rest in bed, as he allegedly had to lead the pandemic response personally. Like Kim Yo-jong’s remarks, the regime published the Rodong Sinmun article this week in English but omitted references to Kim Jong-un’s fever.
The confirmation in Korean, nonetheless, is the first official statement regarding his health status after years of rumors that Kim had endured a coronavirus infection, first in the early days of the pandemic in 2020 and later last year, when Kim debuted a much slimmer figure in photos published by government outlets.
“The much respected leader has greatly suffered in high fever in the middle of the anti-pandemic battle,” Rodong Sinmun revealed in a Korean-language report published Tuesday, as translated by the Korea Times. The newspaper claimed that the fever preceded a visit to workers in direct contact with Chinese coronavirus patients, who were allegedly “teary and held their emotions as they saw the leader who was there and encouraged them at the risk of contagion.”
The initial contact with potentially infected individuals occurred on May 12, the day Kim officially revealed the existence of a Chinese coronavirus outbreak in North Korea, according to Rodong Sinmun. The newspaper did not specify if Kim fell ill after this visit or several others in which he was allegedly exposed to the virus.
The English-language version of the article posted on Rodong Sinmun‘s official website makes no mention of Kim Jong-un having had a fever.
“Last May 12 would have been recorded as the day of misery in history if, that day, we had received only the frightening news via media that the malignant virus had made its way into our territory,” the article read in part, adding:
However, we already became convinced of the victory that day as we also learnt that … Kim Jong Un saw to it that the state epidemic prevention system was switched over to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system and that the most effective and bold anti-epidemic measures were taken.
The article, titled “State and People with Great Leader Are Sure to Win Victory,” similarly relayed the meetings between Kim and exposed individuals, stating that North Korean officials “felt a lump in their throat looking up to the General Secretary who visited the unsafe place in person and encouraged them to cheer up and discharge their heavy responsibilities.” The newspaper did not indicate that the lump was a symptom of a health condition and appears to be an attempt to use a common idiom for crying.
“Lots of people only know the fact that the General Secretary met with saleswomen who had just recovered from the malignant disease when he was visiting the pharmacies in the capital city last May,” the article continued, “But earlier than that, when he visited the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters on the first night of the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system, the officials there were already suffering the malignant disease.”
Kim Yo-jong’s speech in August, shortly before the nation officially declared its epidemic over, similarly appeared without mention of Kim Jong-un’s illness in the English-language version published by the government’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Translations of the original version of the speech read, “He must be responsible to the end of the world and so cannot stay in bed even when he was suffering from the high and scary fever.”
North Korea denied having documented a single case of Chinese coronavirus between when the pandemic began in central China in late 2019 through May 2022, despite sharing a porous border with China and two other nations that documented high rates of infections, Russia and South Korea. Pyongyang blamed unspecified “alien objects,” believed to mean balloons carrying anti-communist flyers and humanitarian aid, from South Korea for spreading the disease in the country.
By mid-August, North Korea declared official “victory” against the Chinese coronavirus with commemorative posters in the traditional communist style, featuring health workers and soldiers.
Kim Jong-un has since delivered various speeches again threatening his political enemies, particularly the governments of South Korea and the United States. He also did not cease threats against states Pyongyang considers hostile throughout the pandemic.
“Our armed forces are now fully prepared to cope with any sort of crisis, and our state’s nuclear war deterrent is also fully ready to demonstrate its absolute power accurately and promptly true to its mission,” Kim Jong-un said in an address in July.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.