Kim Pyong Il has long been considered to be the successor of his father Kim Il Sung after his death. But after losing to his half brother Kim Jong Il, Kim Pyong Il spent about four decades in Europe. But now, with the status of his nephew’s health being unclear, Kim Pyong’s name is mentioned again.
Kim Pyong Il spent about four decades overseas in diplomatic posts including in Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, Poland and the Czech Republic before returning to Pyongyang last year.
Regarding the authoritarian ruler’s whereabouts, experts in South Korea and the US say that he might be sheltering from the coronavirus at the resort town of Wonsan. As of April 28, the leader has not been seen in public for more than two weeks. And rumours had been floating around that he is gravely ill and probably in a vegetative state.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday was quoted by The Guardian as saying, he has a “very good idea” about how Kim was faring.
“I can’t tell you exactly. Yes, I do have a very good idea, but I can’t talk about it now. I just wish him well.”
Kim Yo Jong, the dictator’s younger sister, may not be handed power in case Kim Jong Un is incapacitated despite her having been by his side and having helped him make policy decisions over the years—due to her gender and the relatively young age of 30.
Thae Yong Ho, North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to the UK before he defected to South Korea in 2016 was quoted in a Bloomberg report as saying, “The problem is that a Kim Yo Jong-led North Korea is unlikely to be sustainable.”
He added that the collective leadership with her as the figurehead could lead to chaos.
North Korean ruling party lawmaker Kim Byeong-ki, a member of parliament’s intelligence committee, laughed off theories that Kim Pyong Il.
Regarding the whereabouts of the ruler, North Korea has exercised absolute control over the flow of information. Even when the nation’s former ruler Kim Jong-Il died, the news was released only two days after his death by the state-owned news agency Korean Central News Agency.
As per sources in South Korea, it has been business as usual in the North. But if the dictator is to get incapacitated, chaos would ensue. During the brief vacuum in power, a large number of North Koreans might try to cross the border over to China and there would be a scramble among senior officials in the military to gain control of country’s nuclear arsenal.
