To ask if anybody is hearing of the huge news coming out of North Korea?

[abdeether]

Kim Jong Un has apparently been taken severely ill after complications from a heart surgery. An American journalist tweeted that US officials have heard he is brain dead but she soon retracted the tweet saying she needs to wait for more info.

Would not like to be his surgeon!

Wow there are so many salty people on this thread. Maybe they need their morning shag

I like the diagnosis: Heart problems cause by obesity, smoking and overwork.

Two out of Three not bad.

I would urge any South Korean or Japanese cardiac surgeons not to go near any beaches.

Ooooooh.

His sister's profile has risen recently, but would she be allowed to be the next dictator leader? And if not her, who?

It is kind of big news.
AIBU is a place to get people to see things and comment

But yes, I have heard the news. I wonder what Donald thinks...

@SimonJT
Very true !

I'm not sure I care, tbh. There will another little dictator on their way.

Plus ça change...

The sister would be a dowager empress keeping the seat warm for the as yet unseen Little Kim who so far as we know may or may not exist.

The Chinese will be watching with interest.

And if not her, who?

Choe ryong Hae probably rather than his sister.

There's been rumours one of his children is a son, haven't there?

I always find the way we don't actually know much about what's going on in NK fascinating. It's all rumour and snippets.

The word is he has quite a few kids, but not necessarily legitimate ones.

How very unlike the home life of our own dear leader.

Mockers

This thread title is a little alarmist!

Agreed. So he may or not be ill. Most people think 'huge news' related to NK would be regarding a coup or nuclear weapons, so YABU, OP.

Is it bigger than the CV 19 pandemic ?

What a silly comment. Just because we are in the midst of a pandemic doesn’t mean other news stories aren’t big, and a potential change of leadership in NK would at any other time be headline news. Though I know the ‘end of the world is nighers’ on here would love it if we talked about nothing else.

DM today.

Didn't South Korea say they hadn't heard this and would look into it? Surely Seoul would have been the first to know?

Had a look now.

The story originated with North Korea today, an online news agency which takes reports from rightly anonymous sources within North Korea. They are clear there is only one source for this story so far though their original story said there were several but they've now published a correction.

South Korea say their intelligence have picked up nothing about this so beyond original source and some curcumstansial evidence ( e.g. missing major events) there seems to be little substantiated evidence so far.

However, as a pp points out.. Japanese heart surgeons would do well to stay off the beach!!

Even if it's true and he dies there will be a worse leader waiting in the wings sadly

Would not like to be his surgeon!

I don't see the issue, though. If he gets back to full health on their watch, he should have at least a modicum of gratitude for them; if he dies in spite of or because of their efforts, what can he do?!

The sad thing is, if he dies he'll be replaced by another dictator.

@SimonJT - I thought it was a prerequisite for the job in a number of countries?!!!

what can he do?!
Him nothing if he's dead, but those holding up the state would kill the doctor or send him to the camps with all the extended members of your family. Him dying doesn't stop the horror, probably just increases it with the power vacumn and sends a message to the next doctor to the new leader of what happens if you fuck up
That's all if it's a local doctor, in the past for the Kim family they've had various foreign doctors flown in, french quite a few times.

"Huge News"

hello Donald

Huge news?

Is it bigger than the CV 19 pandemic ?

I seem to have missed the bit that says news can't possibly be important unless bigger than the most important news currently around, @EngTech?

This sort of pointless, snippy response really is MN at its worst.

Stop the press. Daily Mail reader has read the headlines.

What a bitchy thread. It is big news if you’re not a small minded idiot.