WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - US President Donald Trump said on Monday (April 27) he knows how Kim Jong Un is doing and hopes he is fine, after days of speculation over the North Korean leader's health.
Mr Kim’s whereabouts and whether he had a heart procedure have been a subject of intense speculation in recent weeks.
Daily NK, a Seoul-based website, reported last week that Mr Kim was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on April 12, citing one unnamed source in North Korea. Reuters has not been able to confirm the report.
A special train possibly belonging to Mr Kim was spotted last week at the North Korean resort town of Wonsan, according to satellite images reviewed by 38 North, a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project.
"I can't tell you exactly," Mr Trump said when asked about Mr Kim's condition at a White House news conference.
"Yes, I do have a very good idea, but I can't talk about it now. I just wish him well."
"I hope he's fine. I do know how he's doing relatively speaking. We will see - you'll probably be hearing in the not too distant future," Mr Trump said.
South Korean officials have emphasised they have detected no unusual movements in North Korea and caution against reports that Mr Kim may be ill or is being isolated because of coronavirus concerns.
At a closed-door forum on Sunday, South Korea's Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, who oversees North Korea engagement, said Seoul had the intelligence capabilities to say with confidence there were no indications of anything unusual.
SINGAPORE: After months of lockdown and the collapse of business activity, China is shifting gears to get back to “normal”.
The first steps have seen the easing of city and regional lockdowns. The gradual easing of restrictions since end-March culminated in the lifting of the over 70-day long lockdown on Wuhan on Apr 8, once ground-zero for the deadly epidemic.
In part, the easing was a response to the vast improvement in the situation and the recognition that most infections may come from importation, which border controls can keep a lid on now that community spread has been flattened.
The impetus may also be economic rather than epidemiological where China posted negative first quarter GDP figures, the first in almost 30 years.
Primed to restart its economy while taking great care to ensure the virus doesn’t trigger a second major outbreak, China has embarked on a three-pronged intervention, namely: Cautiously lifting lockdowns while controlling the risks of spread, stimulating the economy, and engaging in soft power diplomacy to repair its reputation.
CAUTIOUS LIFTING OF LOCKDOWNS, CONTROLLING RISKS OF SPREAD
With China recording more “imported” infection cases than local transmission, the central government is careful to balance creeping societal stress with that of reducing the risks of a second wave of widespread infections.
In Wuhan, citizens are now free to exercise, visit restaurants and coffee shops, but this reality is only possible because of strict compliance with social distancing rules and the mandated wearing of face masks under pain of enforcement and amid public fears of what the city had to endure.
Restaurants and public places must take the temperature of all entering their premises and refuse entry to those with a temperature in excess of 37 degrees Celsius.
People wearing face masks are seen outside a McDonald's restaurant in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicentre of China's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song
People must show a colour-coded verification of their health status, based on questions on their movement history and health declaration on Alipay and WeChat to gain entry into facilities including subways after scanning a QR code.
Residential committees also keep watch over households. Such efforts undergird hope the return to normalcy can be sustained by control measures and heightened vigilance.
Over and above these common practices, cities of strategic importance have new entry requirements, with the capital Beijing having some of the strictest. International flights have been redirected to one of 12 other cities where travellers comply with quarantine procedures that take 14 days, before they can enter Beijing city limits.
China had earlier announced in end-March a stimulus package, aimed at issuing special bonds and relaxing lending to boost the economy, with President Xi Jinping indicating the fiscal deficit ratio could rise to 3 per cent of GDP. A total of US$344.1 billion has been committed.
Local authorities have been enlisted in thinking of novel ways to spur growth, which have given birth to interesting approaches, such as the introduction of digital gift coupons to support personal consumption in catering, food delivery and online shopping.
Such a move may have been premised on China’s traditionally high savings rate at 45 per cent of GDP, which would lead cash assistance to remain in bank accounts. The Chinese central bank estimates the multiplier effect of digital coupons would be twice as much compared to cash.
Moreover, consumer consumption made up more than half of China’s 2019 GDP growth in 2019, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.
Thirty provinces and cities have already introduced these, with Hangzhou having already issued US$237 billion in digital coupons, supporting also the burgeoning e-commerce sector, a vital lifeline for millions of entrepreneurs, merchants and manufacturers and home to some of China’s Big Tech giants.
Security personnel check the temperature of shoppers at Hema, an Alibaba supermarket in Hangzhou, the latest city to face restrictions in a bid to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus AFP/NOEL CELIS
China is also taking this rare opportunity to review regulations that stymie domestic investment. Interest rates have been eased by the People’s Bank of China on Monday (Apr 20), the second time this year.
Chinese financial institutions also rolled out support measures for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including increasing debt rollovers and providing specific credit lines for the resumption of production.
The country has also embraced a concerted effort to encourage inward foreign investment. This includes the liberalisation of investment banking and money management markets.
For the first time, beginning Apr 1, wealth funds can apply for licenses for wholly owned mutual fund management firms without the need for joint ventures.
China is keen to signal it is open for business, aided in part by a surprising announcement of the signing of 152 major industrial projects in Shanghai on Mar 31, with a value of US$62.3 billion that included foreign investor like Bosch, Mitsubishi and Walmart subsidiary Sam’s Club.
China’s economic recovery will largely hinge on whether the country can arrest the reputational damage caused by the pandemic, after much finger-pointing, concerns over transparency and conspiracy theories suggesting the virus was manufactured in a Wuhan lab have grown.
In total, China has dispatched 300 doctors, millions of coronavirus testing kits and thousands of ventilators to Italy, with 1.8 million masks, 210,000 test kits, 36,000 protective suits, ventilators and thermometers delivered to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Apart from immediate actions to provide medical aid to affected countries, China is also reviewing the knock-on effects of the outbreak on its flagship Belt and Road projects.
BRI projects have been delayed in countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka, as Chinese workers who returned for the Lunar New Year found themselves trapped under lockdown.
Several of China's vast 'Belt and Road' projects across Asia have been affected by the outbreak which has seen countries impose travel and quarantine restrictions . (Photo: AFP/Aidan Jones)
With the US’s announcement it would cease funding to the World Health Organisation, however, there is a chance for China to step up leadership in this area. After all, it has a Health Silk Road mechanism, a key component of the BRI, which seeks to build public health cooperation among BRI nations.
While much suspicions have surrounded China’s intention and the viability of the Health Silk Road in supplanting WHO, China has made no such grandiose claims of the Health Silk Road’s global pre-eminence.
It has instead positioned efforts under that ambit as aiding member states in receiving urgently needed medical supplies and the sharing of experience in epidemic control to build national capacities.
China will probably continue to push the Health Silk Road particularly through highlighting the importance of the BRI infrastructure network in delivering humanitarian aid amid border closures.
This is no better demonstrated by the supply of medical equipment to Spain. Medical supplies were shipped out from Yiwu to Madrid using rail freight through the Alataw Pass in Xinjiang, a rail hub-and-spoke centre, managed by China Railway Express. About 70 per cent of Central Asia freight volume travels through the pass.
Aid can reach Madrid in just two weeks instead of the 50 days it normally takes.
The recent Wuhan-to-Duisburg rail shipment, being the first rail shipment out of the city, is notable. Medical supplies occupied 19 of the 50 containers, with the balance being auto-parts, electronics and optical fibres from the Chinese megacity that is also the global leader in producing personal protective equipment.
THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
Where a vaccine will not be forthcoming until 2021, China has made commendable strides in finding a path back to normalcy.
People wear protective masks as they leave work during evening rush hour in Beijing as the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, China April 20, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
It might not be business as usual as the country grapples with the virus’ implications for its international standing.
But the steps it has taken to help restore some level of business activity and stimulate the economy in new ways while keeping a second wave of outbreaks in check is worth studying, especially for countries thinking of lifting lockdowns.
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has not been seen in public for more than two weeks, missing commemorations for a key political anniversary, and reports he underwent a cardiovascular procedure have spiralled into speculation he could be incapacitated or even dead.
Both Seoul and Washington have played them down, but there has been no concrete proof of life in Pyongyang's state media, beyond reports of messages sent in his name.
AFP looks at some questions and answers on what could happen if Kim, the third generation of his family to lead the North, died.
HOW WOULD THE WORLD LEARN OF HIS DEATH?
The North is extremely secretive, and doubly so about its leadership. Kim's father and predecessor Kim Jong Il had been dead for two days before anyone outside the innermost circles of North Korean leadership was any the wiser.
On past precedent, the first indication will be an announcement of a special broadcast on state television. If the camera cuts to a woman in a black dress, Kim is dead.
Ri Chun Hee, the North's veteran newsreader, has for decades announced key milestones in the North, with her voice brimming with joy for successes and tears flowing for bad news.
When she declares a successful nuclear test or missile launch, she wears a pink joseon-ot, a traditional Korean dress known as hanbok in the south.
But she wore black to reveal the deaths of both Kim Jong Il in 2011 and his father and predecessor, the North's founder Kim Il Sung in 1994.
WILL THERE BE ANOTHER KIM?
The North is officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea but has been ruled by members of the same family since its foundation in 1948.
The claim to legitimacy of the Workers' Party is founded in Kim Il Sung's fight against Korea's Japanese occupiers and later the US-led United Nations forces during the Korean War.
The party maintains extensive control of society - "Single-Minded Unity" is one of the North's most enduring slogans - and no-one expects any kind of popular uprising in the event of Kim's death.
"North Korean generals and top politicians will not start fighting for power or it will be a limited fight for power and they will accept a new leader who is likely to be somebody of the Kim family," said Andrei Lankov of Korea Risk Group.
WHO ARE THE CONTENDERS?
Kim is said to have three children - only the gender of the second one, a girl, is known - but they are far too young to take over.
His sister Kim Yo Jong is one of his closest advisers, acting as his envoy to the South's Winter Olympics in the South, accompanying him on his diplomatic forays and recently issuing political statements in her own name.
She is an alternate member of the politburo of the ruling Workers' Party, and currently the most prominent of Kim's relatives, but the North is socially conservative and has never had a woman leader.
Kim's eldest half-brother Kim Jong Nam - who could traditionally have expected to inherit - was brazenly assassinated in 2017, smeared with a deadly nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur's international airport in a killing most analysts say could only have come from Pyongyang.
Kim has an elder full brother, Kim Jong Chol, who is known to be an Eric Clapton fan and has shown no political ambition.
There is also Kim's wife Ri Sol Ju, who has enjoyed a higher public profile than her predecessors and was given the title of First Lady in 2018.
ANY OTHER NOTABLES?
Kim Pyong Il, his father's half-brother - the Kim family tree is complicated by several of its members having a series of wives or consorts - was the North's ambassador to several eastern European countries for decades.
But he was recalled to Pyongyang last year from the Czech Republic, his most recent posting, and has not been heard of since.
Kim is not known to have designated a successor but officially his number two is Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the ruling party's top decision-making body - the Presidium of the Political Bureau - and first vice-chairman of the State Affairs Council, the country's top government body.
He is hugely powerful, and he may also be related to the Kim family by marriage: it has never been confirmed whether Kim Yo Jong is married, but South Korean media have previously reported, citing unnamed sources, that her husband is Choe's son.
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THE BODY?
Both Kim's father and grandfather lie embalmed in the Kumsusan Memorial Palace of the Sun, a sprawling mausoleum complex of marble-collonnaded halls on the outskirts of Pyongyang.
Kim would probably be similarly preserved before Pyongyang put on a state funeral with all the pomp and circumstance it could muster, around 10 days after his death.
HONG KONG - Hong Kong riot police armed with shields dispersed a crowd of 300 pro-democracy activists holding a singing protest in an upmarket shopping mall on Sunday, despite a ban on public gatherings of more than four people.
Chanting popular protest slogans, mostly young activists clad in black swarmed the Cityplaza mall shouting “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times!” while others called for the release of pro-democracy activists.
The protest was the first sizable gathering since the government imposed the ban on public meetings at the end of March to curb a spike in coronavirus infections.
Fears that Beijing is flexing its muscles over the Asian financial hub risk reviving anti-government protests after months of calm as social distancing rules start to ease.
Political tensions have escalated over the past two weeks after the arrest of 15 pro-democracy activists in the city’s biggest crackdown on the movement. Beijing has said it supported the arrests in the Chinese special administrative region.
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On Sunday, police cordoned off sections of the Cityplaza mall, prompting some stores to shut as activists and shoppers, including families with children, were ordered to leave.
“People were just singing, it’s very peaceful ... we didn’t do anything illegally. Democracy and freedom is more important,” said a high school student surnamed Or who came to participate ahead of his university entrance exam on Monday.
Adding to concerns that Beijing is increasingly meddling in the city’s affairs - a claim the central government rejects - Beijing’s top official in there urged local authorities last week to enact national security legislation as soon as possible.
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Australia has been one of the most successful countries in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, recording just 83 deaths and 6,700 cases, due to border closures, movement restrictions and a stay-at-home policy.
It has lowered its infection rate to currently around 1 per cent from 25 per cent in March.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said 1.13 million Australians downloaded the tracing app CovidSafe as of 6am on Monday (Apr 27), nearly 4.5 per cent of the country's population.
The first one million came within five hours of launching the app, he added.
When asked how many people need to download the app for it to be successful, Hunt said "there is no magic number".
"As many as possible is our real goal," he added.
"It is about assisting our disease experts to find people who might have been exposed and we are well ahead of our best hopes and expectations already."
The surge in downloads come as a Newspoll conducted for The Australian newspaper showed Morrison enjoyed the best approval rating for a leader since end-2008.
Morrison's approval rating has skyrocketed 27 points since the first week of March to 68 per cent, the poll showed.
The result was boosted as Morrison jettisoned much of his conservative government's ideology to pledge spending worth more than 10per cent of GDP, including an A$130 billion subsidy to employers to keep staff they might otherwise have let go.
Westpac chief economist Bill Evans estimates that without the subsidy unemployment would have soared to 17 per cent by the end of June, but would now only reach 9per cent.
Business groups in the country have begun lobbying for easing pandemic-related restrictions.
A modelling by the Business Council of Australia on Monday showed the A$2 trillion economy could take a A$400 billion (US$256 billion) hit if restrictions adopted to fight the spread of COVID-19 continued for six months.
Last week, the head of Australia's central bank said the country would suffer its biggest economic contraction since the 1930s in the first half of this year due to the containment measures.
He estimated national output would fall by around 10 per cent in the first half of 2020 with unemployment almost doubling to around 10 per cent by June.
The states of Queensland and Western Australia have said they would ease some restrictions this week, as both have had new cases in the low single digits in recent days.
Western Australia will allow indoor and outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people, while Queensland has allowed picnics, retail shopping and drives of up to 50km from home. Queensland has also opened its national parks.
The most populous states of Victoria and New South Wales, which have the country's coronavirus hotspots, are maintaining strict social and business restrictions.
SEOUL (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "alive and well", a top security adviser to the South's President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary.
"Our government position is firm," said Moon's special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, in an interview with CNN on Sunday (April 26). "Kim Jong Un is alive and well."
The adviser said that Kim had been staying in Wonsan - a resort town in the country's east - since April 13, adding: "No suspicious movements have so far been detected."
Conjecture about Kim's health has grown since his conspicuous absence from the April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the North's founder - the most important day in the country's political calendar.
Kim has not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers' Party politburo meeting on April 11, and the following day state media reported him inspecting fighter jets at an air defence unit.
His absence has unleashed a series of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, which officials in Seoul previously poured cold water on.
"We have nothing to confirm and no special movement has been detected inside North Korea as of now," the South's presidential office said in a statement last week.
Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, has reported Kim was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month.
Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim, who is in his mid-30s, had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.
Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was "monitoring intelligence" that Kim was in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery, quoting what it said was an anonymous US official.
On Monday, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that Kim had sent a message of thanks to workers on the giant Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism project.
It was the latest in a series of reports in recent days of statements issued or actions taken in Kim's name, although none has carried any pictures of him.
It cautioned that the train's presence did not "indicate anything about his health" but did "lend weight" to reports he was staying on the country's eastern coast.
Reporting from inside the isolated North is notoriously difficult, especially on anything to do with its leadership, which is among its most closely guarded secrets.
Previous absences from the public eye on Kim's part have prompted speculation about his health.
In 2014 he dropped out of sight for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. Days later, the South's spy agency said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from his ankle.
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "alive and well", a top security adviser to the South's President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary.
"Our government position is firm," said Moon's special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, in an interview with CNN on Sunday (Apr 26). "Kim Jong Un is alive and well."
The adviser said that Kim had been staying in Wonsan - a resort town in the country's east - since Apr 13, adding: "No suspicious movements have so far been detected."
Conjecture about Kim's health has grown since his conspicuous absence from the Apr 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the North's founder - the most important day in the country's political calendar.
Kim has not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers' Party politburo meeting on Apr 11, and the following day state media reported him inspecting fighter jets at an air defence unit.
His absence has unleashed a series of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, which officials in Seoul previously poured cold water on.
"We have nothing to confirm and no special movement has been detected inside North Korea as of now," the South's presidential office said in a statement last week.
Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim, who is in his mid-30s, had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.
Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was "monitoring intelligence" that Kim was in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery, quoting what it said was an anonymous US official.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected reports that Kim was ailing but declined to state when he was last in touch with him.
On Monday, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that Kim had sent a message of thanks to workers on the giant Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism project.
It was the latest in a series of reports in recent days of statements issued or actions taken in Kim's name, although none has carried any pictures of him.
Satellite images reviewed by 38North, a US-based think tank, showed a train probably belonging to Kim at a station in Wonsan last week.
It cautioned that the train's presence did not "indicate anything about his health" but did "lend weight" to reports he was staying on the country's eastern coast.
Reporting from inside the isolated North is notoriously difficult, especially on anything to do with its leadership, which is among its most closely guarded secrets.
Previous absences from the public eye on Kim's part have prompted speculation about his health.
In 2014 he dropped out of sight for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. Days later, the South's spy agency said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from his ankle.
