North Korea’s Kim is ‘in grave danger after heart surgery’

Fears were growing for Kim Jong-un’s health as he could be in ‘grave danger’ after heart surgery – although South Korea has played down the reports.

It is unclear what would happen next if fears that Kim is ‘incapacitated or worse’ prove correct, but his sister Kim Yo-jong is among the senior politicians who could be next in line to take control.

Kim, 36, was last seen at a government meeting on April 11, and was mysteriously absent from the celebration of his late grandfather Kim Il-Sung’s birthday on April 15.

South Korea has today played down the fears over Kim’s health, saying that ‘no special movement has been detected inside North Korea’.

Daily NK, a specialty website run mostly by North Korean defectors, cited unidentified sources inside the isolated state saying Kim is recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan on the east coast after getting the procedure on April 12 at a hospital there.