# Unconfirmed reports that Kim Jong-Un may be dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 20, 2026, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984 "2026-10-20T00:02:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/41 "2026-10-20T15:45:39Z")
Anti-aircraft fire is another favored method. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/42 "2026-10-20T16:10:21Z")
The latest from Newsweek > **[Kim Jong Un pictured as unfounded health rumors spread online ](https://www.newsweek.com/kim-jong-un-photos-unfounded-health-rumors-spread-online-12593004)** > > Kim Jong Un appears in North Korean state media after unverified death rumors spread online, renewing questions about his health. and the Beeb. > **[Kim Jong Un: Why do rumours about his death keep coming back?](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmvg6qv1jdydo)** > > North Korean state media has published photos of the dictator with his daughter after the unsubstantiated rumour spread. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/43 "2026-10-20T16:11:14Z")
The BBC [insists on being rational](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmvg6qv1jdydo) about this. > There would probably be signs beyond North Korea’s borders if there were a sudden collapse in Kim’s health. > > China could tighten security along its frontier to prepare for potential instability or refugee flows. Activity around North Korean diplomatic missions might also increase. Defectors in South Korea often receive information through informal networks along the Chinese border. None of this has happened. > > South Korean intelligence officials, meanwhile, told Yonhap they had heard nothing to support the reports. > > The rumour also echoes previous false alarms. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/44 "2026-10-20T16:36:17Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The latest from Newsweek > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > and the Beeb. I find it strange that his proof of life is some photos from an event that may very well have taken place weeks or months ago. Someone rumored to be dead, especially a world leader, obviously has much better ways of communicating to others that they are still among the living. It could be as simple as going on TV or a livestream of whatever social media they use in North Korea and mentioning some event or another that just happened. The fact that he hasn’t done so does lead me to suspect something weird is happening (although admittedly that could very well be political intrigue of some king, like a potential coup, rather than a health crisis). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/45 "2026-10-20T16:40:36Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > I find it strange that his proof of life is some photos from an event that may very well have taken place weeks or months ago. I doubt that event happened secretly in a vacuum. Surely there is some evidence (even from NK) that this was a real event that was scheduled and took place. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/46 "2026-10-20T16:41:15Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > According to tweets by the leader of a Chinese opposition party, Kim suffered a cerebral hemmorhage, was taken to a hospital in Beijing, and passed away, and China has dispatched 9,000 troops to Pyongyang. I don’t understand the connection. Are they afraid Kim’s death may spark a revolution and, I assume, are the troops there to support the troops of the regime? ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/47 "2026-10-20T16:48:43Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I don’t understand the connection. Are they afraid Kim’s death may spark a revolution and, I assume, are the troops there to support the troops of the regime? More like to keep the North Korean troops in line, to prevent them from supporting someone that is attempting to launch a coup. Assuming there is something actually going on and that Chinese troops were in fact sent. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/48 "2026-10-20T18:07:17Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > in Korea we have a fine tradition of acute lead poisoning, if you know what I mean. Kinetic lead poisoning? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/49 "2026-10-20T19:27:56Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Down with the counter-revolutionary pretense that the Dear Leader is in anything but perfect health! There’s incontrovertible proof that he’s run 75 marathons in 75 days!! > > \*and won all of them. While carrying a Goat. A Communist Goat! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/50 "2026-10-20T21:10:42Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > > [@Jasmine](#): > > > > I don’t understand the connection. Are they afraid Kim’s death may spark a revolution and, I assume, are the troops there to support the troops of the regime? > > More like to keep the North Korean troops in line, to prevent them from supporting someone that is attempting to launch a coup. Assuming there is something actually going on and that Chinese troops were in fact sent. Yeah. If Chinese troops are there and Kim is dead or nearly so, then those troops are there to ensure China’s favorite choice, whoever that might be, has a good shot at winning the ensuing power struggle. A precursor question for anyone that I do not know the answer to. … Are Chinese troops ever routinely in NK? Or is NK real bristly about that and they’d _never_ approve Chinese, supposedly friendly, troops on their soil? Yes, they are allies. But e.g. American troops are routinely in e.g. Germany but not in Mexico. At Mexican insistence. Might NK have the same attitude? The value of knowing whether Chinese troops are semi-routinely in NK is to be able to gauge how big a deal it is if Chinese troops truly provably do show up some day. Whether soon or not. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/51 "2026-10-21T00:14:17Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It would also depend on whether the sister intends on being Supreme Leader (which is evidently the title they use these days) in her own right, or wants to position herself as a regent or _eminence grise_ behind Kim’s young daughter. North Korea isn’t technically a monarchy so they won’t literally make a child Supreme Leader or head of state. If Kim Yo Jong were to succeed her brother and consolidates power it’s doubtful that she’d give it up once her niece comes of age. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/52 "2026-10-21T01:45:18Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > North Korea isn’t technically a monarchy so they won’t literally make a child Supreme Leader or head of state. It’s the kind of monarchy where the rules of succession are unclear but it has to stay in the family. They do talk a lot about the Mount Paektu Bloodline. As for the thread topic, precedent is that they would only take a day or two to announce the death. I think waiting longer gives more time for additional leadership candidates, unwanted by the sister and daughter, to emerge. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/53 "2026-10-21T01:49:27Z")
I don’t think that a regency in the name of the daughter would work very well. Any would-be dictator wants a plan that’ll work for longer than a half-dozen years, and what do you do once she’s old enough to claim the full seat for herself? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/54 "2026-10-21T02:33:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > what do you do once she’s old enough to claim the full seat for herself? > **[Princes in the Tower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes_in_the_Tower)** > > This is an accepted version of this page > > The Princes in the Tower refers to the mystery of the fate of the deposed English King Edward V and his younger brother Prince Richard, Duke of York, heirs to the throne of King Edward IV. The brothers were the only surviving sons of the king by his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and were aged 12 and 9 years old, respectively, at the time of their father's death in April 1483. They were lodged in the Tower of London by their paternal uncle and England's re... Anyway, no news that I’m aware of, but the websites of the Pyongyang Times and the Korean Central News Agency are both still offline. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/55 "2026-10-21T13:57:51Z")
Why blame ongoing offline status on Kim being dead or incapacitated versus technical failure or malware attack? Their IT infrastructure is probably as rickety as the rest of their country. > **IT-relevant story about the risk of depending on 'cloud' providers** > > I read the other day about an IT company that provides cloud-based services to software development companies. Evidently they have a bunch of customers. > > They went totally dead one morning. They used the Amazon cloud to host all their stuff. Although they’d paid their bills timely, somehow inside Amazon that fact got lost _and their entire company_ was simply switched off for non-payment. > > It took 3 days to discover what was wrong and correct it. Even if you’re a business spending serious money at Amazon every month, they do not have responsive customer service. At all. Nor much insight into how their own internal processes work. AI don’cha know. Returning to the thread, maybe NK forgot to pay their AWS bill? 😁 Or the Department of “war” is fucking with them hopinig to provoke an incident between now and the election? 😡 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2026, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/56 "2026-10-21T15:35:34Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Their IT infrastructure is probably as rickety as the rest of their country. Also, they _have_ been cobelligerents on the Russian side against Ukraine. So there’s someone else who may want to mess up their data infrastructure. Then again it _could_ be one massive “trust test” by the Kims, to see how long everyone will just stand pat and dare not move, to be followed by purges of anyone who did not do as expected. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/57 "2026-10-22T01:26:10Z")
KCNA is back up today. No news of Dear Leader passing on, but there don’t seem to be any releases about him at all since the clothing shop two days ago, and there are a few public statements by the sister. At the moment I’m thinking “probably alive, but maybe sick or something”. May as well leave this thread open for the next time rumors start swirling. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/58 "2026-10-22T01:45:45Z")
Not a clothing shop. From the article: > More than 270 production units, including major light industry factories and newly built city and county garment factories, submitted around 70,700 clothing items across some 30 categories and about 170,000 pairs of footwear across some 60 categories to the exhibition. > > Kim expressed satisfaction, noting that this year’s exhibition, held annually every October… ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/59 "2026-10-22T08:07:30Z")
It’s interesting how Kim Yo Jong gave an interview yesterday but wasn’t seemingly asked too much about Jong Un. I think that’s her mo but am not sure about that. I think Yo Jong’s telling point yesterday was interesting when she called the South Korean border guards ‘gangsters.’ In San Diego, that word’s a compliment but not where she works. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984/60 "2026-10-22T08:46:39Z")
The PHP security issue could explain websites being down, if NK got early warning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unconfirmed-reports-that-kim-jong-un-may-be-dead/1033984.md?page=2)