Center for East Asia Policy Studies

Kim Jong Un’s health status is difficult to report on and corroborate because of the regime’s information environment and the sensitivity of such close-hold information about the top leader... Reliability of the info depends on access, while corroboration would boost confidence level of an assessment. So having one source doesn’t mean that we should ignore it but it should be weighed with what we know and appropriately caveated.

[South Korea and China’s] downplaying of the reports does not mean that they have more access to Kim... Often they too are scrambling for info.

Kim Jong Un’s poor health and premature death was always a wild card in potential North Korea scenarios. At 36, Kim is obese and has a family history of heart disease. His reported ill health since summer might explain why his sister has been issuing statements in her own name in recent weeks.

[On South Korea's parliamentary election in April 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic] South Korea is a relatively young democracy, only since the late 1980s. There was a desire to go on with elections because of the country’s authoritarian past.