| On Monday, CNN national security correspondent Jim Sciutto reported that “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in grave danger following a surgery.” He cited a US intelligence source.
Then MSNBC host Katy Tur upped the ante by tweeting that Kim was “brain dead.” She cited one current and one former US official.
Reuters soon followed with news that actually Kim wasn’t even sick, according to a South Korean news agency, which itself cited a South Korean government source. Tur deleted her tweet “out of an abundance of caution.” Meanwhile, CNN stands by its report.
It’s not clear what’s going on with the leader of the Hermit Kingdom. All we know right now is that Kim didn’t appear at the recent celebration of his grandfather’s birthday, and hasn’t been seen in public recently.
"Because North Korea is a black box, mostly closed to outside view, almost anyone can get away with claiming that he or she is an expert," wrote David Straub, a former Korean affairs director at the U.S. State Department, who now works at Stanford University.
The North Korean dictatorship is the most difficult country in the world to report on. It’s closed off from independent media, led by a secretive tyrant, and pumps out a steady stream of propaganda. This creates one of the world’s most fertile rumor economies.
Journalists, North Korean expats, intelligence agencies, and others compete to reveal what's really going on with Kim, often getting it completely wrong. It’s a cycle that plays out time and again, especially about the portly despot's health.
We've seen this before. In the fall of 2014, Kim disappeared from public view for more than a month. Outlets claimed he broke both ankles due to his love of high heels, developed gout, or was deposed. British tabloid Daily Star topped everyone with the headline “Fat dictator Kim Jong-un dying from cheese addiction." People lapped it up. Kim eventually reappeared, cane in hand, and things calmed down.
That’s not to say he isn’t gravely ill now, as CNN reported. Or that is health is fine, as South Korean media said. Maybe he had a small procedure, or maybe...
You can see how easy it is to get caught up in speculation. For now and in the future, the best approach for judging the accuracy of news about Kim’s health is three simple words: Wait and see.
—Craig Silverman Got a tip? Email us: fakenewsletter@buzzfeed.com or find us on Twitter: @craigsilverman and @janelytv. Want to communicate with us securely? Here’s how: tips.buzzfeed.com
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