Free Republic

South Korea has said that Kim Jong-un, is “alive and well”, downplaying rumours that that the North Korean leader was seriously ill after undergoing heart surgery. “Our government position is firm,” Moon Chung-in, a special adviser on national security to the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “Kim Jong-un is alive and well.” The adviser said that Kim had been staying in Wonsan – a resort town on the country’s east coast – since 13 April, adding: “No suspicious movements have so far been detected.”

The signature train belonging to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been spotted on satellite images parked at a station on the nation's eastern coast since last week, according to a U.S. monitor, as questions swirl over the dictator's health. Since Kim missed an April 15 commemoration of the 108th birthday of his grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, unverified reports have emerged about his health. On Sunday, a key aide to the president of South Korea insisted Kim, who is believed to be 36, was "alive and well." "Our government position is firm," Chung-in Moon, foreign policy...

Taiwan has reportedly scrambled its warships to monitor a Chinese aircraft carrier strike group, as the two US aircraft carriers in the region have been docked by the coronavirus. China's first ever aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, led the group through the Miyako Strait near Japan, the South China Morning Post has reported. The current location and destination of the carrier group is unknown, but Taiwan has sent its own vessels to monitor them.