North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is reportedly in a coma, according to the former aide to South Korea’s late president Kim Dae-Jung. His sister
Kim Yo-jong will be exercising de facto control over national and international matters, several media outlets reported.
Chang Song-min, who served Kim Dae-Jung as a political affairs secretary and as head of the state affairs monitoring office, on social media claimed that no north Korean leader would entrust any of his authority to another person unless he was too sick to rule or was removed through a coup.
Chang says he received information about Kim being in a comatose state from a source in China. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) had announced a few days ago that Kim Jong-un will exert absolute power but will gradually transfer his authority to Kim Yo-jong "to ease the stress". The leader had handed over more power to a select few senior officials and his sister at a plenary meet of the Worker’s Party. At the meet, he also announced that party’s next Congress meeting will take place in January.
Before this, he was seen presiding over a Workers’ Party politburo meeting on April 11 and a then cutting the ribbon at the opening of a fertiliser factory on May 2. Between April 11 and May 2, the leader kept an unusually low profile, raising questions about his health.
