The U.S. intelligence community is monitoring the condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “very closely,” White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Tuesday.
Mr. Kim is reportedly in danger of dying after having a heart operation, according to a Monday CNN report that said the dictator is in “grave danger.”
“We’re monitoring these reports very closely,” Mr. O’Brien told Fox News, adding that “North Korea is a very closed society.”
Mr. Kim was last seen publicly on April 11 and fell ill around the country’s biggest holiday celebrating the April 15 birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea’s communist regime.
But neighbors China and South Korea have pushed back on the reports and have said they have not seen anything concerning.
“We have nothing to confirm, and there has been no unusual activity detected in North Korea,” Kang Min-seok, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House, told reporters Tuesday.
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An official with the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department told Reuters they do not believe Mr. Kim is “critically ill.”
• Lauren Toms can be reached at lmeier@washingtontimes.com.
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