Update at 17:30 EST: This article has been updated to clarify that the original Korean-language Daily NK article only cited one source, while the subsequent Reuters and English-language Daily NK articles cited multiple sources when they were published. Daily NK has since issued a correction on its English version and changed it to match the Korean version.

Amid prolonged silence from North Korean state media on the whereabouts of leader Kim Jong Un, social media platforms have filled the information vacuum by spreading and amplifying rumors, an NK News analysis has found.

In the days since an April 21 article on the Seoul-based website Daily NK reported that Kim was recovering from a cardiovascular procedure, Twitter — where #KIMJONGUNDEAD was the top-trending topic over the weekend — text messaging apps, and China’s Weibo have churned out a flood of sensational news stories about the DPRK leader.

The rumors contain vivid tales packed with cinematic detail: Kim clutching his heart when he collapsed on the ground; a crowd of 50 Chinese doctors rushing into the operating room exactly eight minutes after his bypass surgery failed.

So how did the Kim Jong Un health rumor mill go from a simple report of a heart procedure to stories of Kim Jong Un’s death and a succession crisis in North Korea? NK News took a look at some of the wildest — and most pervasive — claims about the DPRK leader’s health.

THE REPORT THAT STARTED IT ALL

The Daily NK article’s claim was straightforward: Kim had undergone a “cardiovascular procedure” on April 12 and was recovering at Hyangsan Medical Center, reportedly the Kim family’s personal hospital.

The article, written in Korean and citing one source in North Korea, said that most of the medical staff returned to Pyongyang on April 19 after Kim’s health improved, but “a few remain and are continuing to monitor his recovery.”

The article was picked up in English by Reuters first, which said that the Daily NK article had cited “sources.” Daily NK then translated its own article into English, but the English version also cited multiple sources in the DPRK.

Daily NK issued a correction the same day — after the Reuters article’s viral reception online — clarifying that the information had come from only a “single Daily NK source” inside the DPRK, as the Korean-language version reported.

CNN also published its own article about Kim’s health on the same day — and within hours it had become one of the biggest news stories in the world. The CNN article additionally claimed that U.S. intelligence was monitoring reports that Kim was in “grave danger” after surgery.

But CNN’s article also changed after publication: the original headline read, “U.S. Source: North Korean leader in grave danger after surgery.” It was eventually changed to the more tentative “U.S. monitoring intelligence that North Korean leader is in grave danger after surgery.”

By then, word that Kim Jong Un may be incapacitated, or even dead, was already spreading around the world.

LOST IN TRANSLATION

In a sign of just how quickly these kinds of rumors can spread, one Hong Kong media executive, Qin Feng, posted a message on Weibo containing just two candle emojis.

For some, the message — now deleted — was proof enough that Kim had died.

“Is the Kim news real? Qin Feng posted candles on Weibo,” asked one Chinese-language user on Twitter.

“Let’s see how many hours it’ll be until the official announcement,” Qin said in a longer Weibo post that was also deleted. “I never post fake information.” Qin is the niece of former Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing.

The Chinese-language World Journal referred to Qin Feng’s Weibo posts as a credible sign that Kim had really died, and the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf cited the “top Hong Kong Satellite Television figure’s” claims as well.

In some foreign publications, as if playing a game of telephone, Qin Feng became an unidentified “Hong Kong source.” 

The rumor about Kim Jong Un’s death, however, stayed the same. 

FALSE IMAGES

Some outlets turned to more straightforward video and photo manipulations. Widely shared fake videos and images with Japanese subtitles also appear to show Kim Jong Un’s funeral display, with North Korea’s famous news announcer Ri Chun Hee dressed in a black hanbok announcing Kim’s death.

One video, published on April 21 and with over 895,928 views as of Tuesday, is a manipulated version of a Japanese television spot that aired when former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il — Kim Jong Un’s father — died in 2011. 

The manipulated video contains several glaring artefacts of its origin, including Ri Chun Hee’s original Korean audio announcing Kim Jong Il’s death.

Another widely shared image, also with Japanese text, is a manipulated photo that appears to show Kim Jong Un’s own funeral display. The real image was taken after Kim Jong Il passed away.

Another rumor circulating on Twitter and Weibo over the weekend claimed, with alleged video evidence, that Chinese military vehicles were rushing to Dandong on the Sino-DPRK border.

An NK News analysis of the videos, seen below, found that one was actually shot in Jiangsu Province — a 1600 kilometer drive from Dandong — and another appeared to have been filmed in another season, featuring barren trees along the highway.

XI’S DOCTORS TO THE RESCUE?

Another popular rumor describes — in cinematic detail — how a group of Chinese doctors rushed to Pyongyang in a last-ditch attempt to save Kim Jong Un after a botched bypass surgery. 

It alleges that a team of 50 cardiologists and other specialists from two elite medical centers in Beijing — Fuwai Hospital and the 301 Hospital — were sent to the North after Kim Jong Un suffered a cardiac arrest.

The story seems to have first appeared online on April 22 — one day after the Daily NK report. 

Multiple overlapping accounts describe how a North Korean surgeon, who began the emergency surgery before the Chinese doctors arrived, was too “nervous” to properly perform a stent insertion on the Supreme Leader.

“His hands trembled,” one article in the Japanese language publication Modern Business said, citing a “Chinese medical practitioner.”

That article — which included precise details about Kim clutching his heart and collapsing on the ground before being whisked to the hospital — has been cited widely: the Washington Examiner, a conservative newspaper in the U.S., and the New York Post both reported on it on Saturday.

In the end, according to the story, Chinese doctors arrive just in time and finish the operation in eight minutes, saving Kim’s life but leaving him in a vegetative state.

But in another version that spread on Chinese-language social media, the doctors arrive eight minutes too late and Kim dies in surgery.

“He’s gone, the Chinese doctors arrived too late,” one Chinese-language message said, according to what appears to be a screenshot of a text conversation from April 22. “It’ll probably be announced tomorrow.”

The rumors on Chinese-language social media cite various “doctor” sources and appear to have spread via networks that include not only China’s heavily censored internet, but also Chinese-speakers living in the U.S., Taiwan, and other countries with freer media environments.

Some versions of the story add that the medical delegation from China was led by a high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party: Song Tao, the head of the Party’s International Liaison Department.

That rumor also appears to have first emerged on April 22.

Song and Kim Jong Un have met in the past, and even hugged when they saw each other in 2018, lending the claims an air of believability.

But some tweets pushing the rumor included a short video clip of Song Tao shaking hands with officials in North Korea — an actual event filmed in 2017. 

A Youtube video with more than 330,000 views as of Tuesday said that Kim Jong Un had died “yesterday,” on April 22. The narrator claimed the information came from a reliable source: Song Tao’s group.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA PICKUP 

By the end of last week, the Song Tao story — or at least a version of it — had made its way to major news outlets.

On Friday, Reuters reported that China “has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.” 

That report cited two anonymous sources who claimed that a “senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department” was in charge of the delegation and had left Beijing on April 23.

And on Monday, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that Song had led a delegation from 301 Hospital to the DPRK “on or before April 23,” citing anonymous sources inside the Chinese Communist Party. 

The Asahi Shimbun report added that Song Tao and the doctors’ visit may not have been connected to Kim Jong Un’s health at all, and instead may have been related to COVID-19 in North Korea.

SUCCESSION

A separate rumor published on April 25 by the American Chinese-language news site USOCCTN (美国海外电视网) said that Kim Jong Un had been transferred from a hospital in Wonsan to a hospital in Pyongyang — and that he had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage ten days before.

Because of his incapacitated state, the article said, his uncle Kim Pyong Il — the brother of Kim Jong Il — was taking charge of the country. 

Kim Yo Jong — Kim Jong Un’s sister — was put under house arrest, the article also said.

The article’s contents have been repackaged and circulated via text. An alleged screengrab of a chat log cites “an article” as its source, but does not specify from where.

MAKING SENSE OF THE MADNESS

Looking at the array of the rumors out there — and the sheer scale of interest in the story — it’s clear that reports of Kim Jong Un’s ill health have sparked global interest in North Korea following a year in which Pyongyang had largely fallen to the wayside.

And what’s also clear is the desperate need to separate fact from fiction, as well as the power of otherwise-reputable news outlets to spread misinformation and gossip.

But with netizens having declared that the North Korean leader is dead, alive, in a coma, or even abducted by aliens, rumors likely will persist until Kim Jong Un appears in public again.

Edited by Oliver Hotham