Kim’s comments, published by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Saturday, didn’t include any direct criticism of the US or its southern neighbor amid a prolonged deadlock in nuclear diplomacy during the three days of discussions that wrapped up on Friday.

Kim defended his accelerating weapons development as a rightful exercise of sovereign rights to self-defense and set more “militant tasks” to be pursued by his armed forces and military scientists, according to the agency. But the report didn’t mention any specific goal or plan on testing activity, including detonating a nuclear device.

The plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee also reviewed key state affairs, including efforts to slow a COVID-19 outbreak the North first acknowledged last month and progress in economic goals Kim is desperate to keep alive amid strengthened virus restrictions.

“[Kim] said the right to self-defense is an issue of defending sovereignty, clarifying once again the party’s invariable fighting principle of power for power and head-on contest,” the KCNA said.

The meeting came amid a provocative streak in missile demonstrations that jolts an old pattern of brinkmanship aimed at forcing the US to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

North Korea has for years mastered the art of manufacturing diplomatic crises with weapons tests and threats before eventually offering negotiations aimed at extracting concessions.

In a move that may have future foreign-policy implications, Kim promoted during the meeting a veteran diplomat with deep experience in handling US affairs as his new foreign minister.

Choe Son Hui, who is among the North’s most powerful women along with the leader’s sister Kim Yo Jong, had a major role in preparing Jong Un for his meetings with then-US president Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019. Talks between Pyongyang and Washington derailed after the collapse of Jong Un’s second meeting with Trump in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for a major release of US-led sanctions on the North in exchange for limited disarmament steps.

Choe replaces Ri Son Gwon, a hardliner with a military background who, during the meeting, was announced as Jong Un’s new point person on South Korea.

Putting the pressureNorth Korea has a history of dialing up pressure on Seoul when it doesn’t get what it wants from Washington. While the KCNA’s report on the meeting didn’t include any comment specifically referring to South Korea, it said the participants clarified “principles and strategic and tactical orientations to be maintained in the struggle against the enemy and in the field of foreign affairs.”

North Korea has already set an annual record in ballistic launches through the first half of 2022, firing 31 missiles over 18 different launch events, including its first demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in nearly five years.

Jong Un may up the ante soon as US and South Korean officials say North Korea has all but finished preparations to detonate a nuclear device at its testing ground in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri. The site had been inactive since hosting the North’s sixth nuclear test in September 2017, when it said it detonated a thermonuclear bomb designed for its ICBMs.

The North’s unusually fast pace in testing activity underscores its leader’s dual intent to advance his arsenal and pressure the Biden administration over long-stalled nuclear diplomacy, experts say.

Jong Un’s pressure campaign hasn’t been slowed by a COVID-19 outbreak spreading across the largely unvaccinated autocracy of 26 million people.

During the meeting, North Korea maintained a dubious claim that its outbreak was easing, despite outside concerns of huge death rates, given the country’s broken health care system.

North Korea has restricted the movement of people and supplies between regions, but large groups of workers have continued to gather at farms and industrial sites, being driven to shore up an economy decimated by decades of mismanagement, sanctions and pandemic border closures.

Jong Un said during the meeting the country’s “maximum emergency” antivirus campaign of the past month has strengthened the economic sector’s ability to cope with the coronavirus.

Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/06/12/news/world/kim-reaffirms-arms-buildup-at-party-meet/1847026

The post Kim reaffirms arms buildup at party meet first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Department of Defense Press Secretary John Kirby also highlighted the importance of South Korea-U.S. joint training exercises.

“All our training events are meant to improve our readiness,” the spokesperson said when asked if a U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise, set to be held later this month, was meant to send a strong signal to the North.

“It’s not about message sending. It’s about readiness, and that’s our commitment on the peninsula. That’s our commitment to our South Korean allies,” he added.

The remarks come after the South Korean defense ministry said it will discuss with the U.S. about the possible deployment of U.S. strategic assets to South Korea amid North Korea’s continued missile launches.

Pyongyang staged 12 rounds of missile tests this year, including seven rounds in January alone that marked the largest number of missile launches it has conducted in a single month.

They also come after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, said the North may use nuclear weapons if attacked by South Korea or the U.S.

“We are well aware of the North Koreans’, their efforts to advance their nuclear ambitions, as well as to advance their ballistic missile capabilities,” said Kirby.

“We don’t need to hear threats and threatening comments from North Korean leaders to understand the actual threat that Pyongyang represents to the peninsula and to the region. And that’s why we are continuing to adjust our posture as needed, to adjust our intelligence gathering posture as needed, and certainly to adjust our training and readiness with our South Korean allies,” he added.

Source: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220409000300325

The post U.S. continues to adjust readiness to meet N. Korean threats: Pentagon first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Four years ago, President Donald Trump and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un were preparing for their first summit. Trump had dropped his “fire and fury” campaign and Kim had suspended intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and nuclear tests. Although skeptics filled the ranks of Washington’s established Korea analysts, for the first time in decades there was a sense of possibility about the bilateral relationship.

The ensuing détente ended the following year with the failure of the Hanoi summit, though Kim maintained his testing moratorium. Last year, he indicated that Pyongyang was planning on ending its forbearance; in January, he unleashed a flurry of short-range launches, capped by a test of long-range missile components. Last month Pyongyang deployed its first ICBM in five years, though the regime apparently misrepresented the missile that was launched. And there is activity at the North’s nuclear site, suggesting a test there is imminent.

Speculation has focused on Kim desiring to force newly elected President Joe Biden to the negotiating table. That was the old model, with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) greeting every new U.S. administration with a reminder that Pyongyang was waiting for concessions. However, few Washington analysts believe that the DPRK is willing to abandon its nuclear capability, irrespective of any promised benefits for doing so.

After all, Kim, like his father and grandfather, appears to be brutally efficient in retaining power and presumably has seen the video of Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi’s ugly demise—after he traded away his nukes and missiles for America’s and Europe’s favor. They proved to be faux friends ready to betray Qaddafi at their first opportunity. Add to that the lesson of Ukraine: give up your nukes in return for an unenforceable security guarantee, and get invaded.

Which offers a darker purpose of the North’s accelerating tests. So far, Kim has indicated no interest in talking with Biden, even though the North’s economy is suffering badly, not only from U.S. and United Nations sanctions but self-imposed, coronavirus pandemic-induced isolation. It appears that Kim has decided that he is unlikely to get the sort of economic relief he was denied at Hanoi, so there is no current reason to negotiate. That is, he is unwilling to agree to Washington’s official objective of comprehensive, verifiable irreversible denuclearization, so why bother talking?

While Kim hasn’t said so explicitly, he appears to be determined to expand and improve his nuclear arsenal sufficiently to eventually force Washington to negotiate on his terms. He certainly has not been conciliatory of late. Earlier this month he explained: “Only when one is equipped with the formidable striking capabilities, overwhelming military power that cannot be stopped by anyone, one can prevent a war, guarantee the security of the country and contain and put under control all threats and blackmails by the imperialists.”

The most obvious target of his vitriol is the United States, of course. However, South Korea, with a new, more hawkish conservative government soon to take power, also has been subject to the North’s ire. In this case, Kim loosed his favorite attack dog, his sister, Kim Yo-jong: “In case [South Korea] opts for military confrontation with us, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty … a dreadful attack will be launched and the [South Korean] army will have to face a miserable fate little short of total destruction and ruin.” She described the South Korean defense minister as a “scum-like guy” and his comments as the “hysteria of a lunatic.” He had threatened preemptive strikes if the North prepared to fire missiles at the Republic of Korea (ROK).

Relations with the ROK are likely to worsen when Yoon Suk-yeol assumes the presidency. He promised to take a tougher stand toward the North and work more closely with the United States. Although this approach is unlikely to achieve much more than President Moon Jae-in’s variant of the Sunshine Policy—no South Korean administration has ever caused anything more than a temporary improvement in bilateral relations with the DPRK—it is more likely to enrage Pyongyang. After all, taking Yoon at his word suggests that there will be no more craven concessions, such as banning private efforts to spread information to the North’s people.

What to do? The current administration’s strategy looks a bit like the Obama administration’s “strategic patience”—aka, kick the can down the road approach. If Pyongyang was doing no more than insulting Washington and Seoul, that strategy might work. However, the North appears to be moving forward full speed to expand its arsenal and, more important from Washington’s standpoint, extend its reach. In just a few years, the RAND Corporation and Asan Institute figure Pyongyang could have a couple of hundred nukes with ICBMs capable of hitting the U.S. homeland. That would be a game-changer.

Although it is impossible to know Kim’s mind, building up his military while refusing to engage Washington suggests he plans to create an arsenal too large for even the harshest DPRK critic to try to dismantle. Gaining the ability to strike U.S. targets would necessarily and dramatically limit America’s options. Washington’s involvement even in a conventional conflict could trigger nuclear retaliation. Yet despite the strong ROK-U.S. ties, they are not worth risking the destruction of American cities.

Washington cannot look to other nations for answers. Through 2017, the United States could rely on China to at least discourage the North’s most ambitious plans. For a few years, Beijing even approved and enforced a succession of new United Nations sanctions. However, Chinese president Xi Jinping switched course after Washington and Pyongyang announced their summit plans, which raised the possibility of a modus vivendi between the DPRK and United States, leaving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) behind. Xi met Kim for the first time and normalized what had been a cold friendship at best. Xi has since maintained that course.

Despite the slight fillip in Sino-American relations after Biden’s inauguration, these ties seem destined to head downward. Disputes over Xinjiang, Taiwan, the South China Sea, and more are no closer to resolution. Beijing’s soft support for Russia in the latter’s war on Ukraine is driving another wedge between the United States and PRC. Kyiv’s plight has captured public attention and energized the most hawkish elements of the increasingly reckless Republican Party, which already seemed comfortable with, if not quite determined on, war with both China and Russia.

Moscow also has influence in the DPRK, though Russia long has trailed Beijing in clout. Today the Putin government has no interest in assisting the United States against Pyongyang even if doing so theoretically advanced Russian objectives. Moscow is more interested in causing trouble for America than reducing trouble by North Korea.

Japan was a member of the six-party talks and could play a role, but the status of Japanese kidnapped by North Korean agents decades ago has long deadlocked negotiations with the DPRK. Tokyo’s ties with the South also are difficult, though the incoming ROK administration hopes to improve this relationship. One advantage of improved coordination between the ROK and Japan—both market-oriented democracies seeking peace and stability in Northeast Asia—would be effectively adding Tokyo’s economic and growing military clout to the inter-Korean balance.

Seoul has the most at stake in DPRK relations but has been left with little authority by the United States. Thus, the North treated even the Moon administration, which did its desperate best to conciliate and appease Pyongyang, with contempt after the collapse of the Hanoi summit. Only an American exit, vigorously opposed by South Koreans across the political spectrum, would force the North to treat the ROK more seriously.

Absent such a switch, Washington appears to have no option other than doing more of the same, which has consistently failed over the last three decades. Despite claims that additional sanctions might bring the North to heel, the Kim government has survived both the pre-2017 period of tougher and more seriously enforced penalties as well as almost complete isolation during Covid-19.

The prospect of conventional retaliation, especially against South Korea’s capital of Seoul, was enough to deter prior U.S. administrations, most notably that of Bill Clinton, from striking North Korean nuclear facilities. Despite Trump’s flirtation with military action during his “fire and fury” stage, the North’s presumed possession of two to three score nukes would have magnified the cost of U.S. military action many times. And while the war would have been “over there,” as the ever war-happy Sen. Lindsey Graham indecorously put it, the human costs would have been catastrophic and included plenty of Americans. As Pyongyang continues to work on a panoply of weapons, including hypersonic and submarine-launched missiles, it soon will be able to retaliate “over here” too, making U.S. military action an impossible option.

The United States should prepare for ICBM and nuclear tests, as well as continued development of new and improved weapons. Alas, Washington has no answer. It complains about every test, demonstrating that it is unnerved by the North’s policy. Then the United States incrementally adds sanctions, without effect. And today the North refuses to even discuss denuclearization.

North Korea has oft been said to be the land of only bad options. That is ever more so as the North rapidly moves ahead with missile and nuclear development.

Moreover, a tougher ROK administration might move in unpredictable directions. A popular majority has supported a South Korean nuclear deterrent for years, with seven in ten currently in favor. Further recognition of allied impotence would likely fuel South Korean support for building an ROK bomb.

The Biden administration should consider a significant change in emphasis, from denuclearization to arms control. Since the latter—such as capping the North’s program, reducing the size of its arsenal, imposing proliferation safeguards, forestalling development of some weapons, and more—would move the peninsula toward the former, Washington need not admit that it had abandoned comprehensive and verifiable denuclearization. However, this appears to be the only practical means to forestall or at least limit a nuclear arms race on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea has oft been said to be the land of only bad options. That is ever more so as the North rapidly moves ahead with missile and nuclear development. With the promise of the Trump-Kim summits an increasingly distant memory, the Biden administration needs to find a new approach. And quickly.

Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of several books, including Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World and co-author of The Korean Conundrum: America’s Troubled Relations with North and South Korea.

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/failure-launch-why-america-can%E2%80%99t-stop-north-korean-missile-tests-201730

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A mass demonstration in Pyongyang on 9 September 2021 to mark 73 years since the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Kim Won-jin/AFP via Getty Images)

North Korea is again following its old playbook, alternating between extending an olive branch or thorns, diplomacy or missile tests, all with the aim to extract concessions from the United States and South Korea.

After South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in proposed to declare an end to the Korean War in his address at the United Nations General Assembly, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un, praised Moon’s offer as an “admirable idea”. However, just four days later, the North tested a new hypersonic missile that experts deem could evade existing missile defence shields and need much less preparation time. North Korea then conducted a new anti-aircraft missile test, even though Kim Jong-un then kept his pledge of engagement by restoring the inter-Korean hotlines cut in August.

Pyongyang is indicating to Biden that there is a window of opportunity for engagement, but he needs to act fast before it closes.

Although Pyongyang has increased the intensity of its missile tests in the past two weeks, it still abides by the moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests reached with the United States under former president Donald Trump, leaving the diplomatic route open. There are many reasons behind North Korea’s mixed signals, including advancing its missile technology in an arms race with the South, putting pressure on Seoul to persuade the Biden administration to lift sanctions, and consolidating its status as a nuclear power.

Another overlooked factor behind Pyongyang’s moves has to do with the Biden administration’s lack of detail and lukewarm diplomatic bid to engage North Korea. Via its mixed signals, Pyongyang is indicating to Biden that there is a window of opportunity for engagement, but he needs to act fast before it closes, especially when the South Korean presidential election is just around the corner.

Despite Biden’s willingness to engage the North diplomatically without preconditions, his administration has not come up with any concrete offers to back up its own olive branch. Since the release of the administration’s North Korea review in April, US officials have given the same response to all of North Korea’s provocations, that Washington condemns the actions but remains open to dialogue. The United States has prioritized caution over an elaboration of its North Korea policy and has often reluctantly followed Seoul’s initiatives rather than coming up with its own.

Joe Biden must decide whether he will adopt Obama’s approach of strategic patience towards North Korea or Trump’s all-out diplomacy (Cameron Smith/White House)

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Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said in a statement reported by KCNA Watch that the U.S. and South Korea had begun “dangerous war games” which she claimed is “accelerating the instable situation” on the Korean Peninsula. She added that the U.S. continuing such actions “will surely make them face more serious security threat[s].”

“The prevailing situation proves once again that we were quite just when we decided to steadily build up the capabilities for national defense,” said Kim, who also serves as vice-department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

“The reality proves that only substantial deterrent, not words, can ensure the peace and security of the Korean peninsula, and that it is a vital requirement for us to build up the force powerful enough to fully contain the external threats to us,” she continued.

Kim then said, “We will put more spur to further increasing the deterrent of absolute capacity to cope with the ever-growing military threats from the U.S., i.e. the national defense capabilities and powerful preemptive strike for rapidly countering any military actions against us.”

Ankit Panda, an Asia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Washington Post that Kim’s phrase “deterrent of absolute capacity” probably referred to North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.

Vipin Narang, an MIT professor who specializes in nuclear strategy, also told the Washington Post, “I would likely interpret [‘deterrent of absolute capacity’] — in the broader context — to be the overall nuclear deterrent and posture.”

During her remarks, Kim also said “I would like to express my deep regret at the perfidious behavior of the south Korean authorities.” Her comment comes after North and South Korea reopened a line of communication two weeks ago after going a year without dialogue, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The post North Korea threatens US with new preemptive strike weapons – probably nukes first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

She reiterated her country’s opposition to the joint military exercises – which North Korea describes as preparations for invasion – saying: “The South Korean government yet again chose the ‘March of War’, the ‘March of Crisis’.”

Donald Trump’s high-profile meetings with Kim Jong-un failed to break the diplomatic deadlock – Getty Images

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Many of us in Seoul have been expecting this. North Korea usually reacts when South Korea and the US carry out joint military exercises. Sometimes that is in the form of a missile test. On other occasions, such as this one, it responds to the so-called “war games” with a string of angry words.

Kim Yo-jong has been her brother’s favoured attack dog for a while and this statement is no exception. She aims at two targets in her remarks: the joint drills and the visit to Seoul by US secretary of state and the defence chief.

It at least lets Washington and Seoul know Pyongyang is watching and listening, despite not responding to the recent back-channel attempts by the White House.

Kim Yo-jong didn’t elaborate on exactly what North Korea would do if it didn’t like what it heard during these meetings. But she is saying – you have been warned.

North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are expected to be high on the agenda during this week’s visits to South Korea and Japan by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Mr Biden has already announced a policy review on North Korea, which is expected to be unveiled next month.

During the election campaign he called Mr Kim “a thug” and said North Korean nuclear disarmament had to happen before US and UN economic sanctions could be relaxed.

Relations between the US and North Korea plummeted in 2017, when the North tested long-range missiles capable of hitting American cities.

Tensions eased as President Donald Trump sought to develop a personal rapport with Mr Kim.

But much-trumpeted meetings – including summits in Singapore and Vietnam – failed to break the impasse over nuclear disarmament and sanctions.

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Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56410625

[Disclaimer]

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Once upon a time there was a hunger and thirst to know every detail and to understand every nuance on numerous fronts.  Not anymore.  Now it’s a matter of protecting one’s emotions and sensibilities from the mindlessness that’s consuming everything.

It’s not enough that America is being destroyed on the southern border.  Mind you, Canadians are not welcome across our border.  COVID, you know.  Besides, they’re civilized, cleanly people.  This is clearly no place for people of that caliber.  They can’t even come across the border to shop!  The COVID danger is just too high for such risks.  But the uneducated?  Get them in here by the uncountable thousands, probably hundreds of thousands or millions before it’s over, if it’s ever over.  If you don’t think it’s the best idea, you’re a white supremacist whether you’re white or not.

States have nothing to say about anything, particularly Texas.  You’ve undoubtedly heard about the thousands of “unaccompanied minors” that are being bussed to the Kay Baily Hutchinson convention center in Dallas for “decompression.”  The State of Texas has nothing to say about it, nor does the city of Dallas.  No, this arrangement was made between the Federal government and the convention center, which will be handsomely rewarded.

But could we just talk to some of these immigrants and get some information about the cartels and human trafficking?  The answer to that would be a resounding NO!  It’s none of Texas’ business.  The _____ administration (it has five letters either way) has resolved that no one can see what transpires inside the facility or talk to its decompressing residents, fresh from the mud streets and decomposing unburied.

Do you think the COVID panic is legitimate?   Not when it comes to those who rushed the border.   For the most part, they’re not even subjected to the indignity of testing.  When they are, it’s found that some 20% are infected (if you believe the test results).  American citizens, racists deserving of punishment, can’t go anywhere (or Canadians, Australians, Brits…) without proving they’re healthy, and of course wearing masks regardless.  On the other hand, compassion demands that every border facility be overrun with these “unaccompanied minors” who will soon be joined by their extended families.  That’s how compassion works, in case you didn’t know.  It’s the American dream of the left.  A permanent underclass to be coddled by the politicians who despise patriotic citizens and make them pay for the destruction of their own way of life.  If you want America to survive, you must be a hater.  That’s what the news is telling us all day every day.

The pope finally peeved a substantial support group.  It seems that he’s against the “church” blessing same-sex marriages.  What an outrage to the gayest of prime time blocks on cable TV!  They just couldn’t let that stand, so the homosexual anchor appeared on a national morning show to tell us that, “God is not about hindering people,” and God is “not about judgment.”  What?!?  You’ve got this smarmy know-it-all fruitcake telling us what God thinks?  He obviously never subjected himself to any of God’s Word.  If he did, he’d know he’s already in a heap of trouble, never mind being ignorant to a mind-boggling degree.

He’s one of the mantra of voices in media insisting that America’s greatest threat comes from its own citizens who are racist by nature.  The public school unions have determined that little children must be taught “critical race theory,” and their parents have nothing to say about it.  Never mind “common core,” they’ve blown by that.  It’s not enough that children are being taken from their parents over mask refusal, they’ll be brainwashed into believing that their parents and society as a whole is built on a foundation of racism, and nobody better get in the way of their juggernaut, or else.

Teachers unions have declared war on parents opposed to critical race theory brainwashing of their children.  Seems like we were warned some years ago that America would have to change its traditions, change its HISTORY as part of the transitions.  Bet you haven’t forgotten.

It’s all over the news we no longer watch.  In Virginia a “hit list” is being kept of parents who say they don’t want their kids taught this stuff.  Why?  They’ll find out soon enough.  According to the reports, parents’ information is being turned over to cyber-criminals for identity theft and whatever other thievery inflicted on unsuspecting people who’ve given personal information to questionable outfits.  In Virginia, it’s not safe to give your information to the schools!

The international enemies of everything America stands for are emboldened once again.  Kim Jong-un’s sister has issued a warning, and Iran thinks it’s calling all the shots.  If not for Israel and its Prime Minister, they might be right.  Apparently it is the fervent goal of the “current administration” to make sure that neither America nor the Western world at large survives total transformation.  May God intervene, despite the fact that sin has seemingly overtaken every public institution.  What are the chances?

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 19 March 2021 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A South Korean diplomat is speculating that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fallen into a coma and that his sister, Kim Yo Jong, is poised to take the rogue nation’s reins.

Chang Song-min, a former aide to South Korea’s late president Kim Dae-jung, made the sensational claims to South Korean media, according to the New York Post.

Chang suggested that Kim is in a coma, “but his life has not ended.”

“A complete succession structure has not been formed, so Kim Yo-jong is being brought to the fore as the vacuum cannot be maintained for a prolonged period.”

FILE: Kim Yo Jong, right, helps her brother North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sign a joint statement following the summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the Paekhwawon State Guesthouse in Pyongyang, North Korea.  (Pyongyang Press Corps Pool via AP)

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Chang’s allegation comes just days after South Korea’s spy agency said the North’s 36-year-old leader had delegated part of his authority to his close aides, including his younger sister, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

In a private meeting with lawmakers last week, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said that “Kim Yo-jong, the first vice department director of the Workers’ Party Central Committee, is steering overall state affairs on the delegation,” though Kim her brother still maintains “absolute authority.”

KIM JONG UN DECLARES NORTH KOREA WILL REFUSE OUTSIDE AID TO COMBAT CORONAVIRUS, HELP REBUILD AFTER FLOOD DAMAGE

Still, doubt lingers as to the veracity of the diplomat’s claims. Nor was it the first time that Kim’s prolonged absence from the public spotlight has fueled speculation about his health.

In April, reports circulated that the leader of the Hermit Kingdom had had heart surgery after he was not seen in public for nearly three weeks. The North Korean government never explained Kim’s absence, including why he missed a commemoration that celebrated the 108th birthday of his late grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

After a video was released showing Kim moving around during the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, a South Korean government official told Fox News that “our government believes” there was no indication that a medical procedure had occurred.

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