Reports: Kim Jong Un's Health in Danger after Undergoing Heart Surgery
"The US is monitoring intelligence suggests that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, is in grave danger after undergoing a previous surgery, according to a US official with direct knowledge," CNN has reported.
"Reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is seriously ill after heart surgery are not true, officials in South Korea have said," BBC reports.
"Headlines that Kim Jong-un was "gravely ill", "brain-dead" or "recovering from an operation" were always going to be impossible to verify.
"But the presidential office in Seoul has said there have been no particular signs from the North to indicate the 36-year-old is "gravely ill".
"It is also not the first time rumors about his health have fired up intense flurries of speculation - only to be later dismissed," reads the article by Laura Bicker.
The author further notes that it is not the first time he has 'gone missing.'
In 2014, Kim Jong-Un disappeared for 40 days from early September - which sparked a torrent of speculation, including that he had been ousted in a coup by other political grandees.
Then he re-appeared, pictured with a cane.
State media at the time admitted he was suffering from an "uncomfortable physical condition", but did not address rumors that he was suffering from gout.
"But for now we can only watch and wait to see if North Korea reacts to this swirl of speculation about their leader's health.
"The truth is when it comes to information about the North Korean leadership, we are often all scrambling around in the dark," the author concludes.
Image: Reuters