Whether or not Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, is dead or alive, what North Korea desperately needs is a leader who will transform this pariah State. But is he dead?
What we know and don’t know
The rumours about Kim Jong-un’s health first gained traction when, on April 15, he failed to materialise for the 108th birthday anniversary celebration of his grandfather, Kim Il-sung - whose body is preserved, like Lenin and Mao, for public veneration, in a mausoleum in Pyongyang .
Tae Yong-ho, who was the second in command at the North Korean Embassy in Ealing (once home to the comedian Sid James), says Kim’s unexplained absence was unprecedented and will have set alarm bells ringing throughout the country.
