Kim Jong Un not dead or assassinated

Rumors that Kim jong un would have died in an assassination are unconfirmed and dispute. Kim Jong Un is NOT dead: 'Assassination' rumours were a hoax, say U.S. officials. The claim that Kim, supreme leader of North Korea since the death of his father Kim Jong Il in December, had died apparently stemmed from a message sent out by a man who works near the country's embassy in Beijing.
He posted on Sina Weibo: 'Downstairs from the office, the cars at the Korean embassy are increasing rapidly, now there are over 30 cars. It's the first time I've seen this situation, did something happen in Korea?'

Kim Jong-il’s 70th birthday is cause for celebration at the North Korean embassy in Beijing, so much so that building is now abuzz with activity for the multi-day festivities.

Now, along with the planned events, embassy staff can now mark worldwide social-media fueled assassination rumours down as one of the many tributes for the late Dear Leader.

Rumours that Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s newly anointed supreme leader, had been assassinated originated on Chinese microblogging service Weibo Friday, and spread swiftly on Twitter.

This seemingly innocuous question, bolstered by other witnesses who saw an unusual number of cars at the embassy, was magnified by the power of internet gossip into a rumour that Kim had been assassinated by gunmen who burst in his bedroom and were subsequently killed by his bodyguards.

Wilder commentators even spun the supposed assassination in to a broader claim that a coup was underway in North Korea which could depose the Kim dynasty, rulers of the country ever since it split with the south in 1948.

 Rumours: North Korea's supreme leader was said to have been assassinated

But when ABC News asked U.S. officials for confirmation of the assassination rumours, one simply told them, 'There's nothing to this.'

Another official said: 'Our experts are monitoring the situation and we see no abnormal activity on the [Korean] peninsula and nothing that credits that tweet as accurate.'

It was thought that the death of the elder Kim would herald a period of instability, potentially leading to regime change, but those expectations have not been fulfilled.

A less dramatic but equally bizarre explanation for the large number of cars at the North Korean embassy was suggested by Gawker and Chinese news agency Phoenix.

They pointed out that this month would have been the 70th birthday of Kim Jong Il, and a large number of events including tours of China and North Korea are set to mark the anniversary.


The Twittersphere is aflutter with rumors that the heir to the late Kim Jong-Il’s communist dynasty, Kim Jong-Un, has been taken out of commission by a stealth contingent of ninja assassins.

But alas, like most rumors, the claims are unsubstantiated and Kim Jong-Un is alive and kicking.

From Fox News:

A team of trained ninja assassins snuck into North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s room overnight and assassinated the new leader while he was on a business trip in Beijing — if rumors spreading across microblogging service Twitter and its Chinese counterpart Weibo are to be believed, that is.

The rumors — unsubstantiated by any major news service or government agency — started on the Chinese language Twitter clone earlier today, claiming Jong-Un had been killed in his residence.

“According to reliable sources, North Korean leader [Kim Jong-Un was killed] in Beijing in February 10 2012, at 2 o’clock and 45 minutes. Unknown persons broke into his residence shot and were subsequently shot and killed by the bodyguard,” one Tweet claimed.

No new photo of the leader of the reclusive country has emerged — at least none picked up by the popular tumblr blog Kim Jong-Un Looking at Things.