Kim Kyong Hui, North Korean leader Kim Jong
Eun’s aunt, whose whereabouts had long been unknown, is
still alive, according to South Korea’s spy agency. She
disappeared from the public eye after making her final appearance in September
2013, leading to rumors that she had fallen ill or had been executed following
the purge of her husband.
“The recent report from Japan’s NHK that Kim Kyong Hui is dead has been proven incorrect,” the National Intelligence Service [NIS] confirmed on Tuesday,
according to lawmakers who attended a closed-door intelligence committee
parliamentary meeting.
Seoul’s spy agency
said it has yet to confirm rumors on the execution of Byon In Son, director of
operations at the military’s General Staff; Ma Won
Chun, the head of the National Defense Commission’s
planning committee; and Choe Hwi, deputy director of the Propaganda and
Agitation Department, according to ruling Saenuri Party’s Lee Cheol Woo, and Rep. Shin Kyoung Min from The New Politics
Alliance for Democracy.
The NIS also revealed Kim Jong Eun has
extreme fear of the Ebola virus and ordered officials to “Proactively and thoroughly seal the country off from the disease.” Since October, the North has banned entry from foreign tourists,
and for its nationals who travel outside of the country and return, a 21-day
quarantine measure has been put in place near the city of Sinuiju, the spy
agency confirmed.
“Party secretary Choe Ryong Hae, who
visited China as a special envoy, and Kim Yong Nam, president of the Supreme
People’s Assembly Presidium, who traveled to Russia for
eye treatment, were no exception,” Lee said. “If the top leaders are going through this, you can only imagine what
it would be like for others. It means the quarantine is being enforced very
strictly.”
The South’s
intelligence agency speculated the North is implementing such drastic measures
under the belief that if the Ebola virus enters the country it could threaten
the leadership itself due to the state’s poor medical
support system.
The recent peak in number of defectors is
also one of Kim’s concerns, according to the NIS. With
the growing number of escapees, Kim went as far as to saying that “even state security officials run away,”
according to lawmaker Shin. He added this is a primary example of what the
current situation in the North is like.
Regarding reports that North Korea’s internet had been hacked on December 23rd, the spy agency
confirmed it to be accurate and said the internet outage was caused by a DDoS
[Distributed Denial of Service] attack. It also said the agency has faith in
U.S. intelligence that reported the hacking incident on Sony Pictures was
conducted by the North.
