Kim Jong Un ‘suffers from insomnia, weighs over 300 pounds and is becoming more dependent on cigarettes and alcohol’
- Large imports of foreign cigarettes are being brought into North Korea
- South Korea’s spy agency said it was monitoring Kim’s poor health
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be suffering from insomnia, as well as alcohol and nicotine dependency, South Korea’s intelligence agency has said.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) released a report on Wednesday, claiming that Kim’s unhealthy habits mean he may weigh more than 300 pounds (almost 140 kg).
The report said South Korea had intelligence that top North Korean officials had been scrambling to gather information on insomnia and the medications needed to treat the sleep disorder.
The South Korean spy agency said it was monitoring Kim’s health and believed he might be on the verge of falling into a vicious cycle of alcohol and nicotine abuse that would be perpetuated by his insomnia.
A large import of foreign cigarettes and expensive snacks coming into the country has recently been monitored, authorities said, despite the country’s food crisis.
Kim Jong Un holding a cigarette in Pyongyang, North Korea, surrounded by soldiers and his daughter (left)
Kim Jong Un smiling with a lit cigarette between his fingers
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un drinks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during a truce inside the demilitarized zone on April 27, 2018.
“Based on the fact that the North Korean authorities have been actively collecting the latest medical information, including drugs such as zolpidem, for the treatment of insomnia in high-ranking officials abroad in April, the NIS estimates that the president Kim suffers from significant sleep disturbances. Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People’s Power Party told reporters in the country after a private briefing.
“Chairman Kim looked very tired with visible dark circles under his eyes during his public appearance on May 16,” Yoo told reporters.
He said the intelligence agency had studied recent images of Kim and estimated that he weighed around 140 kg (309 lb).
South Korean analysts are said to have been monitoring the scratches and bruises that have appeared on Kim’s hand and arms. Yoo said this was believed to be a form of stress-induced dermatitis and allergies.
The NIS told reporters it had recently tracked a large import of Marlboro and Dunhill cigarettes to North Korea, as well as high-end snack foods.
Kim is known to be a frequent smoker and is regularly seen with a cigarette in hand in state-approved photographs.
The NIS also said that starvation and suicide deaths had recently risen in North Korea as a result of worsening food shortages.
He estimated these deaths had tripled in recent years, making it one of the worst rates during Kim’s time in power.
Kim Jong Un smokes a cigarette at North Korea’s General Satellite Command and Control Center after a rocket launch in December 2012.
Kim is caught lighting up in a grainy image of the North Korean leader in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019.
Kim has tried to crack down on these deaths, the NIC said. He said that he had committed suicide as a ‘treasonous act against socialism’.
South Korea’s spy agency also released information about North Korea’s failed satellite launch on Wednesday, which it said Kim was likely to have seen.
The launch failure was a setback to boosting its military capabilities as tensions with the United States and South Korea rise.
After an unusually quick admission of failure, North Korea committed to a second launch after analyzing what went wrong. It suggests that Kim remains determined to expand his arsenal of weapons and put more pressure on Washington and Seoul while diplomacy stalls.
South Korea and Japan briefly urged residents of some areas to take shelter after the launch.
The South Korean military said it was recovering an object believed to be part of the crashed North Korean rocket in waters 125 miles west of the southwestern island of Eocheongdo. The Defense Ministry later released photos of a white metal cylinder that it described as a suspicious part of a rocket.
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