Kim Jong Un: Is he or was he?

File grab from Wikipedia

Raju Korti
It has been some time that news channels and the political leaders appearing on those have been hammering it into our numbed heads about the "secular" nature of the Corona virus. Their case is the virus is so unprejudiced, it does not discriminate on caste, religion and nationality. What is happening world-wide vindicates that claim with the exception of countries like North Korea which has a such a unassailable iron-clad wall built around it that no information can break through. I have selected North Korea not just because it stands the test of the case but also has all the Teflon-coated intrigue to raise curiosity.
There are speculations that the so called heart surgery of its whimsical and self-styled dictator Kim Jong Un has been "unsuccessful" and his life could be in danger -- a euphemism for death. There is no clear word whether it is a heart surgery or whether the virus has caught up with him or whether he is even indisposed in the first place. Sample this: Kim is said to have been born in 1983 or 1984 which means he could be 37 or 36. From his "marriage", sometimes "supported" by the picture of a pretty woman sitting next to him, he is "thought to have three children."  If the birth is uncertain, death is even more uncertain.
North Korean dictators don't die. They are "reported dead". They also have the phoenix-like ability to rise from their ashes. Barely had the world heaved a sigh of relief that Kim's grandfather, Kim II Sung had "reportedly died" at 74, it had the mortification of "finding" that the man was alive to rule for 11 more years after his "passing on". His son and his natural successor Kim Jong II was "declared dead" when he was supposed to be very much "alive" according to the state media. In fact, he had passed two days earlier and no body elsewhere in the world, least of all the North Koreans themselves had any clue. The most romantic part of this misty story of hereditary dictatorship is all Kim generations are "Eternal" until they die and die after being "Eternal". This happens in "Democratic People's Republic of Korea."
For a country whose population of 2.55 crore is a little more than that of Mumbai's 2.4 crore, you need to marvel at the fascination and mystery the mercurial Kim Jong Un generates. So it is natural to wonder how the hefty man "died" all of a sudden in the midst of a heart operation and someone from his own kin spread the word about his "death." And then came a "source" who asserted that "he was recovering from the surgery." Among other things which are tightly held in the country, it is the personal health of the Kims.
If you have understood how the state information apparatus in North Korea is handled going by Kim II Sung and Kim Jong II's deaths, Kim Jong Un could, repeat, could be alive but incapacitated. In any case, the Americans can be none the wiser. North Korea's reputation of being overwhelmingly secretive makes it dicey about trusting any information that comes through its paranoiac officially controlled media. The country forever lives in the fear that Americans could exploit its perceived weakness. Still, Un suffering a stroke managed to leak because he was treated by a French doctor and by his "absence" from the military parades. 
The lock-down due to Covid-19 pandemic confounds the confusion but the speculations seem to have been fueled by his skipping the recent cruise missile launch -- something unusual but not unprecedented. The man has not been seen in any videos and/or pictures which in any case cannot be authenticated. Few images of totalitarianism are as powerful as the vision of a regime trying to conceal the death of its self-proclaimed leader.
Not that it really matters if you speculate about the happenings in that country but the world will learn about Kim's health only when North Korea thinks it fit to make that announcement. Conjecturing about his successor at this stage is beyond the realms of even speculation.
I would have put it thus: "It is believed, widely or not, that the Supreme Commander of People's Democratic Republic Party of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, has reportedly died following a purported heart surgery. According to sources, usually close to Mr Kim Jong Un and at times reliable, he allegedly leaves behind a woman known to be his wife and three children, apparently his own. There will likely be a State mourning in respect of the soul if it has really departed."
Brevity is the soul of wit. Only President Trump will not appreciate.