Kim Jong Un's sudden disappearance brings spotlight to North Korea

With North Korean leader Kim Jong Un missing from the limelight for weeks now, speculations have been that the 36-year-old dictator may be seriously ill or have even died. Kim Jong Un was last seen on April 11 at a key political meeting but has been out of the public eye ever since. The rumours found a base when Kim failed to appear on the annual ceremonies to mark the birth anniversary of his grandfather on April 15, a very important event in North Korea. The report was first published in a newspaper in South Korea that follows the secretive state closely. 

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Many media reports have emerged ever since speculating that Kim is probably sick or was in a grave condition after heart surgery. Few media reports suggested that Kim Jong Un's heart surgery went wrong and he may have died. To add fuel to the sparking rumours, US President Donald Trump earlier this week said that he knows where Kim is but he won't tell anybody. 

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Concern for the world

However, if earlier accounts are to be taken into consideration, the Kim dynasty has a habit of making wise people around the world look like fools, his grandfather did it, his father did it and he himself has done it, they have all disappeared in the past only to reappear again. In 2014, Kim Jong Un had disappeared for some time and there were speculations that he had been killed or something awful had happened to him, but he reappeared a month later with a walking stick and the North Korean media reported that he had a sprain and he is recovering from it. 

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The disappearance of Kim Jong Un is causing so much concern across the globe because analysts believe that his death could be disastrous for the Korean Peninsula. The world is worried about the power transition in North Korea because even after putting loads of resources in gathering intelligence about the secretive state, the combined force of the US, South Korea and Japan intelligence have not yet been able to confirm whether Kim has children with his wife Ri Sol-Ju or how may they might have. Experts are assuming that Kim Jong Un’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, would most likely become the new head of state. 

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(Image Credit: AP)