Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing French territory in the northwest Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland. The population is around 6,000 and there is one confirmed case of COVID-19. Yemen also reports one case. Remote countries like Bhutan, Mauritania and Greenland each reports fewer than a dozen cases. What about North Korea? South Korea-- which got it's church0related outbreaks under control fast-- started early and now has 10,728 confirmed cases and just 10 new ones announced today-- just 209 cases per million people, less than a tenth of the U.S. infection rate. North Korea reported no cases at all-- until they suddenly reported "a few" cases last week-- in Pyongyang, South Hwanghae and North Hamgyong province. Is one of the cases Kim Jong-Un?Were the "medical experts" sent by China to North Korea actually embalmists and taxidermy specialists? NY Times' Choe Sang-Hun, reporting from Seoul, South Korea, noted that North Korea's silence on Kim Jong-Un's health has kept the rumor mill churning, even if South Korean officials insist the dictator/monarch to the north is alive and well. Another worthless source, Señor Trumpanzee, "has called 'incorrect' and 'fake' a report that Mr. Kim was 'in grave danger' after surgery. All this has done little to stop the rumor mill churning about Mr. Kim’s health and the fate of the nuclear state-- for the simple reason that North Korea has not reported a public appearance by its leader for two weeks. Nor has it responded to lurid claims about his health. The lack of real information from the hermetic country is giving rise to rampant rumor mongering, leaving North Korean experts, foreign officials and intelligence agencies to parse through it all for signs of the truth."
Depending on the news outlet or social media post, Mr. Kim, believed to be 36, is recuperating after a minor health issue like a sprained ankle, or he is “in grave danger” after a heart surgery. Or he has become “brain dead” or is in a “vegetative state” after a heart-valve surgery gone wrong at the hands of a nervous North Korean surgeon or one of the doctors China dispatched to treat him. Or Mr. Kim is grounded with Covid-19. Where did he get it? From one of those Chinese doctors.One rumor circulating in South Korean messaging apps claims that after French doctors could not wake Mr. Kim from his “coma,” Kim Pyong-il, a half brother of Mr. Kim’s late father, seized power with the help of pro-Chinese elites in Pyongyang, the North’s capital. It goes on to say that Mr. Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo-jong, has been detained while Beijing is secretly bargaining with Washington over the future of North Korea and its nuclear weapons.Seoul has questioned the accuracy of the unconfirmed reports, while the South Korean news media appears to dismiss most of them as online rumors spreading through Chinese social media and beyond. But they cannot be completely ignored, since North Korea is so secretive that the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies have been unable to penetrate Mr. Kim’s inner circles.Mr. Kim last appeared publicly on April 11, when he presided over a Politburo meeting. Speculations about his health began swirling after Mr. Kim missed state celebrations for his country’s biggest holiday, the April 15 birthday of his grandfather and founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung.Rumors went into overdrive after Daily NK, a Seoul-based website relying on anonymous sources inside the North, reported on Monday that Mr. Kim was recovering from heart surgery performed on April 12. The next day, CNN added to the frenzy, reporting that Washington was monitoring intelligence that Mr. Kim was “in grave danger.” On Saturday, TMZ, a celebrity-news tabloid website in the United States, blared: “N. Korea dictator Kim Jong-un reportedly dead after botched heart surgery.”More than once, Mr. Trump has wished Mr. Kim well if he indeed were ill.“North Korea’s secrecy and our lack of reliable information create a breeding ground for rumors,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “But his continued absence would be destabilizing as more people in and outside the country wonder if he is incapacitated or dead.”In recent days, the South Koreans and their allies in Washington have scoured North Korea with the help of spy satellites and other resources for signs of Mr. Kim and preparations for missile launches.Their efforts led them to Wonsan, an east coast town where Mr. Kim’s family has a seaside compound complete with yachts, Jet Skis, a horse track and a private train station.A train “probably belonging to” Mr. Kim has been parked there since at least Tuesday, 38 North, a Washington-based website specializing in North Korea, reported on Saturday, citing commercial satellite imagery....Mr. Kim’s sudden demise could create a power vacuum with far-reaching implications.Over the decades, American and South Korean officials have discussed top-secret contingency plans, including how to prevent the North’s nuclear weapons from falling into wrong hands, and what to do if Beijing sends troops into the North to stabilize its neighbor, which has long served as a buffer between China and American forces based in South Korea.In this secretive society, any likely successor to Mr. Kim amounts to a guessing game, even for outside analysts who have spent their academic careers parsing the North.Will it be his only sister, Kim Yo-jong, who has recently expanded her role in his government? What about Kim Pyong-il, who returned home last year after serving for decades as North Korea’s low-key ambassador to Eastern European countries?Some predict a collective leadership to be led by Choe Ryong-hae, the No. 2 in government hierarchy. What if a yet-unknown but ambitious general engineered a putsch? How would North Koreans who have been trained to worship the Kim family respond?
Earlier today for the Washington Post, Kim biographer Anna Fifield asked if "the devious despot [is] dead after heart surgery? Is he lying in a vegetative state in a hospital bed? Or is he happily chain-smoking at his beachfront palace in Wonsan?" She doesn't know, more does anyone willing to speak.She is reporting, though, that "There’s been panic buying in the capital, where locals are stocking up on everything from laundry detergent and rice to electronics to liquor. They started snapping up all imported products first, but in the past few days there’s been a run on domestically produced items, too, such as canned fish and cigarettes."So what if the Chinese "doctors" were toxologists and are stuffing him now? Fifield warns that there is no clear line of succession. Rumors that Dennis Rodman is ready to take over have been shot down. "The Kims, wrote Fifield, "have claimed their right to lead through a mythical blood line they trace back to Mount Paektu, the legendary birthplace of the Korean people. Kim has constantly played up this Paektu bloodline to make the case that he’s a legitimate ruler. This is the reason he often rides his white horse on that mountain-- and it’s also the reason he had his half brother assassinated in Malaysia in 2017. Kim Jong Nam could have theoretically claimed the top job because he also had the Paektu blood pulsing through his veins. But there is no obvious male heir to Kim Jong Un. He’s believed to have one son, but he’s barely a toddler. He has an older brother, an Eric Clapton superfan who was reportedly passed over for being 'effeminate.' And an uncle, his father’s half brother who had been ambassador in Eastern Europe, a sort of cushy exile for almost four decades, until he was recently recalled to Pyongyang."Fifield reminded her readers that "The baby clearly isn’t ready to lead, and the two others have no networks or profile inside North Korea. That leaves only one obvious candidate: Kim’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong, a woman who has taken on an increasingly prominent role in the regime, supporting her brother at summits and acting as his envoy to South Korea. She runs North Korea’s propaganda division and makes sure her brother looks his best, and she is clearly capable. She has been issuing statements in her own name in recent weeks-- another piece of kindling for the rumor fire-- but she has no military credentials. There has been no propaganda campaign around her. The state media has never even disclosed that she’s the First Sister. She also has one other major shortcoming: She’s a woman. The strict Confucian traditions of both Koreas value age and maleness; Kim Yo Jong has neither. Asking the octogenarian old guard to accept Kim Jong Un was one thing, expecting them to serve a millennial woman-- she’s about 31-- is quite another."