Media outlets keep sharing Senator Lindsey Graham’s opinion on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s health, even though there is no official information on the matter, and despite the fact Graham hasn’t provided any evidence.
The South Carolina Republican senator, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, admitted to Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro he has no direct knowledge of Kim’s health – but weighed in anyway, calling North Korea a “cult.”
“It’s a closed society. I haven’t heard anything directly, but I’ll be shocked if he’s not dead or in some incapacitated state, because you don’t let rumors like this go forever or go unanswered in a closed society which is really a cult, not a country, called North Korea,” Graham said.
“So I pretty well believe he is dead or incapacitated. And I hope the long-suffering North Korean people will get some relief if he is dead,” he continued.
The senator added he hopes whoever takes over as North Korea’s next supreme leader will work with President Donald Trump to make the country a “better place for everybody.”
Graham is one of many to weigh in on the state of Kim’s health despite conflicting reports being available at the moment, all of which are based on little more than rumors.
Shijian Xingzou, the vice director of Hong Kong Satellite Television, says that a “very solid source” within North Korea has reported that Kim is dead.
Other media reports based on sources have said Kim is in a vegetative state following heart surgery.
A team of Chinese doctors was also reportedly dispatched to the country to check on the leader’s health.
The Washington Post’s Anna Fifield, Kim’s ‘biographer’, revealed that “trusted sources” told her helicopters have been flying low over Pyongyang and train services have been “disrupted.”
Website 38 North has reported that satellite imagery suggests Kim is staying at an estate on the country’s east side, where a train “probably belonging” to the North Korean leader has been static for days.
Kim has not been seen publicly in two weeks, and amid the lack of official information it seems like media outlets have picked up on an opportunity to compete, with increasingly dramatic articles – all citing sources.
