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North Korea’s state-run news broadcast at 6:30 p.m. local time made no mention of Kim, and the official Korean Central News Agency also didn’t provide an update on his condition. Kim Min-ki, head of the intelligence committee in South Korea’s parliament, told Yonhap that he believes that there’s no unusual signs regarding Kim’s health after he was briefed by the country’s spy agency.

The news around Kim’s health spurred the benchmark Kospi gauge to extend losses to as much as 3 per cent while the won slid as much as 1.7 per cent against the dollar. The Kospi closed 1 per cent lower.

The health of Kim, overweight and a heavy smoker, is one of North Korea’s most closely guarded secrets, typically only known by a handful of people in the inner circle of leadership. While North Korea had scaled down major events as it battles the coronavirus pandemic, speculation about Kim had been growing since his unprecedented absence from April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung, one of the biggest days on the country’s calendar.

Photo by STR / KCNA VIA KNS / AFP

Even the most well-informed North Korea experts find it hard to tell what’s happening in the secretive state. The Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that gathers information from informants inside the isolated nation, separately reported that Kim underwent a “cardiovascular surgical procedure” and was now mostly recovered. Reuters cited an official with the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department saying that Kim wasn’t believed to be critically ill.