Has Kim Jong-un Had Covid-19?

After speculation which included some media outlets, citing North Korean dissidents, claiming that he had died, Kim Jong-un apparently reappeared last week, to the clear joy of Ri Chun-hee and her state media colleagues. The Supreme Leader (for it was he) was seen marking the opening of a fertiliser plant. Western analysts, showing their natural paranoia, mused that the factory might actually be manufacturing warheads.

Dead, am I? Stuff that for a game of soldiers

Had Kim undergone heart surgery? The Mail wasn’t too sure. “Pictures from the event appeared to show the dictator had needle marks on his forearm and he appeared to use a golf buggy to get around. Kim had previously used a cart following leg surgery”. But then, maybe not: “a senior South Korean government official told reporters today that the presidential office does not believe the authoritarian leader underwent an operation, according to the Yonhap News Agency”. So what was behind his absence?

Noting that Kim used a golf buggy to get around, there was also his gait, fine at first, but at the end of the available video, beginning to lumber, suggesting he was tiring easily. Then we have the crowd applauding his presence all wearing masks, as one can see an increasing number of people doing whenever they venture outside in the UK.

Here, the wearing of masks is all about the Coronavirus pandemic. And there’s the big hint: rumours previously circulating told that North Korea had discovered one person infected with Covid-19, and that the person had been shot. Seeing a whole crowd of North Koreans wearing face coverings suggests One, a more enlightened attitude to the virus, and Two, the suggestion that it may have taken greater hold among the population.

How policy could shift from taking the infected out and shooting them, to realising that it might be best to treat the infected, could have come about by Kim’s pals across the border in China giving him the hard word about the ineffectiveness of his state’s border in keeping the virus out - possible - or, more certain to make the régime in Pyongyang sit up and take notice, Kim or one of his immediate family becoming infected.

Not sure about that? This from the Guardian: “Harry Kazianis, senior director of Korean studies at the Center for the National Interest think tank in Washington, said the coronavirus theory was plausible. ‘The most likely explanation for Kim’s absence is with North Korea declaring the coronavirus pandemic an existential threat ... he most likely was taking steps to ensure his health or may have been impacted in some way personally by the virus’”. Impacted by perhaps getting it himself.

Kim Jong-un may be only 38, but he is seriously overweight, unhealthy, and is rumoured to be a heavy smoker, which will do his lungs no good at all. If he is recuperating from Covid-19, he will, like our own Great Leader, visibly tire easily. Satellite imagery suggests Kim’s personal train was stabled near Wonsan, near his coast-side holiday home - which fits in with his having to take time out to recuperate away from the spotlight.

North Korean media is not going to own up to the Supreme Leader being fallible enough to succumb to Covid-19, at least not until well after the event. Bit like the UK.

But that is where my Occam’s Razor is pointing right now. Anyone can become infected.

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