grandfather the next in line was kim jong il and then kim jong un the grandson of the founder kim il sung she would fall again in that line they do have an uncle kim jong il but he has been sort of out of public view and out of the government structure for the last couple of years so she really is the strongest sort of candidate but she's shown as being very quite young a little bit inexperienced so there would be some sort of grooming to take place and a stronger introduction of her character to the public should she really emerge as the as the absolute heir so this has been a moment to take stock of power structures in north korea but how does this episode reflect on the ability of countries in the region and the international community to deal with potential insecurity in north korea. well i think we need to recognize that we really don't know what's going on or the power structure surrounding the kim family and the decision making process it's very very opaque going back to when kim jong il died the international community didn't even find out until 2 days later when the north korean

2 weeks ago this was the commemoration celebrating the birth date of the founder of north korea kim il sung kim jong un's grandfather that he missed which then prompted speculation about what had happened to him the news report on one web site news website here in south korea reported that he had had some sort of cardiovascular procedure and then the reporting and various speculation got more louer it with various reports coming from the united states requoting intelligence sources they're saying that this procedure a gone horribly wrong the fact he was gravely ill well there seems to put to rest those rumors at least and as far as the chinese may be sending a medical team there is concerning overly callous here rob i guess beijing doesn't want a vacuum in pyongyang they want a known commodity in pyongyang. that is one of the things that has come out of all this just reminding us just about the cult surrounding the leadership in north korea and the fact that if their leader suddenly disappeared without the there being an apparent succession strategy in place about the potential instability

weeks ago the day of sun this is the day when the whole of north korea celebrates the birth date of kim il sung the founding father of north korea and kim jong un's grandfather he missed that and followed shortly after by all sorts of speculation that maybe he had some sort of procedure maybe it went wrong some news agencies and some news media even reporting that he was gravely ill gravely sick well it seems to disprove that fact that he is alive and well and back attending these very public events once all but given how closed in on itself north korea is and given how much control he exerts over the country is there a chance here rob we may never know the real timeline of what really happened to him. quite possibly i think when it comes to the activities of the leader of north korea it is of course one of the most secretive opaque countries in the world when it comes to the activities of the leader and more so the health of the leader then we really have very little information to to go on and when we get disappearances like this then we do tend to get all sorts of theories cropping up quite

date in north korea's calendar this was 2 weeks ago the annual celebration of the birth date of kim il sung the founding father of north korea and kim jong un's grandfather that started all of this speculation about what had become of him we had reports from one news website here in south korea that he had undergone some sort of cardiovascular procedure followed by other reports there was a network from the u.s. that quoted a source there in intelligence saying that he was gravely ill and then we had all your it reporting from a japanese magazine saying that he was potentially brain dead even some defectors were well placed and prominent defectors here in south korea saying that they believed it actually died well all of these rumors do seem to have got a life of their own rob you mentioned they have younger 5th decade john now what the last few weeks of speculation has raised questions about who might succeed him . absolutely i mean it has been a reminder of just about the peculiar nature of this kim dynasty and the fact that there is so much power in the hands of one person the cult that

dates he was absent from ceremonies marking the birth of his grandfather north korea's founder kim il sung rumors began to circulate with some u.s. and south korean media citing reports kim was seriously ill following a heart operation these satellite images sparked further speculation the north korea monitoring group of 38 north says the show kim's personal train parked near the eastern coast a resort of one son where kim has a villa. north korean state media never commented on kim's long absence but these latest images are likely to quell the intense speculation about his health correspondent frank sniff joins me now from seoul frank we've just same that new video from the state news agency appearing to show came alive and well does it in fact settle the speculation over the latest health. well i think it may in fact settle that that concern about kim jong un's health those images are from korea central news agency north korea's state media in the background you see kim jong. junk that's kim jong un's sister she's the vice director of the propaganda and agitation department in north kore

few days later for the first time ever he missed the big birthday celebration of his grandfather, kim il-sung, the state founder at april 15th in september 2014 he went dark for nearly 40 days then reemerged with a cane. and every time he gets out of the public eye questions arise about succession >> the fact that kim yong-jun appeared alongside her brother indicates she probably still is in the picture when it comes to concession >> reporter: and in that new propaganda video his youngest sister right there by his side >> that said looking at the photos, looking at the video of kim jong-un walking around, cutting the ribbon and being surrounded by officials it shows us that i think the leadership of kim jong-un is going to persist for a while. >> reporter: but for now the 36-year-old supreme leader still very much at the helm of the hermit kingdom >> molly joins us from london and the president, molly, is reacting tonight >> reporter: that's right, jose. so the president wasn't commenting on all the reports he was missing as of last week he's just tweeted to say i for one am glad to see he's

weeks ago the day of sun this is the day when the whole of north korea celebrates the birth date of kim il sung the founding father of north korea assault style rifles are being immediately banned in canada in response to the country's worst mass shooting a little less than 2 weeks ago. fighting on the yemeni island of so called for has stopped after an agreement was reached between government forces and u.s. backed separatists troops pushed back the separatists from the island's provincial capital on friday those are your headlines up next the inside story i'm back immediately after that with a quick summary of al-jazeera world news i will see you very soon. we're resuming warfare those are the words of colombia's largest army who after a month long cease fire the national liberation army says the government is willing to talk so what does that mean for peace in colombia this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm. we're talking colombia today the national liberation army better known as the e l n says it's resuming its 5 decades long armed activity after declaring a ceasefire e

speculation about kim's health began after he missed a ceremony marking the birthday of his grandfather, kim il-sung, on april 15. following his absence, a sout korean news outlet reported that ng from hearveri surgery, but there has been no comment on that from u.s. officials. a 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern puerto rico this moing, just five months after a bigger quake in the same area. today's quake hit near the coastal city of ponce a little after 7:00 a.m.or there were rts of structural damage to buildings, but as of this afternoon, casualties were reported. the u.s. glogical survey said this was an aftershock of the larger 6.4-mnitude earthquake that hit southern puerto rico on january 6. that quake konleperson and destroyed hundreds of homes in the area. ♪ ♪ for more news ofhe day and a special feature on the levon helm studios in woodstock, new york, featuring singer/ songwriter john sebastian, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> mitchell: antiby sting for covid-19 is becoming more readily available, but there are still multiple unknownt what the test results actually mean when it comes

it is always headline news in north korea but he missed his grandfather kim il—sung's birthday on theone of the most important days on the north korean calendar and he did not show for that and it started the rumour mill which went so far as people saying he was dead. and that obviously doesn't seem to be the case now with these photos of him up and about, but it doesn't answer the questions of what has actually been happening over the last three weeks? no it doesn't, the rumours that he was on the east coast, he had actually showed up 50 kilometres north of pyongyang, so we have no idea where he has been — he could have been anywhere in the country but here he is near the capital. this is probably a good lesson that caution is always the best approach when dealing with any kind of news from north korea. oh yes, because the media is so tightly controlled, they have onlyjust sent out pictures of this thing that happened on the first, it is the second now, we won't see video for another 2a hours so we won't really be able to tell how fit and well he is until then. so things happen slowl

circulating when kim jong un missed a very important ceremony that was the birth state celebration of kim il sung the founder of north korea and kim's grandfather it led to speculation that it had some sort of heart problems possibly requiring a surgical procedure that possibly went wrong one new source in japan even reporting that he was in a vegetative state as a result of that and are now a number of high ranking defectors here in south korea who had claimed that possibly he could be dead the taking of the awful lot of criticism for the way that they have speculated about his health condition and the speculation of course raise questions once again about who would replace kim jong un if he were to die i know it's very hard to know what's going on inside north korea but is there a succession plan in place there's been a lot of talk about his sister neatly kim young gentleman whom we saw on the pictures that state television has released. it is a timely reminder just of the unique nature of the kim dynasty and of the line of succession that we have now established in north korea and the fact tha

really the speculation started when kim missed this all important anniversary of the birth date of kim il sung the founder of north korea and kim's grandfather various speculation had him having some sort of cardiovascular procedure possibly going wrong possibly being gravely ill with even one japanese magazine reporting that he was in some sort of vegetative state and some high placed defectors here in south korea actually quoting their own sources to say that he had passed away it seems all of that was extremely premature. and all of this conjecture and you mentioned that his youngest sister kim john in this has raised questions about who would succeed then potentially. it is a timely reminder of just the unique nature of this kim dynasty the power that rests with the leader of north korea the cult that surrounds that person and if that person suddenly wasn't there what or who would suddenly fill the void or the vacuum accumulate john his younger sister we know is probably his closest allies she has possibly being groomed to take over should something happened to him as she has recently been

the birthdate celebration of kim il sung the founder of north korea and his grandfather that did lead to war that this speculation if the varying from the fact that he had had some sort of operation some sort of possible cardiovascular procedure that possibly went wrong right up to reports that he could have been brain dead but all of that seemingly to be perfectly premature right while the north korean tenney very keen to dispel the rumors but there is so the question rob of who would replace came john if he were to die what do we know about that the succession that . absolutely this is a very timely reminder just of the precarious nature of the north korean leadership politics and the fact that there is this huge cult surrounding the north korea's leader that does raise the big question of what would happen in the vacuum of the void that would be left behind and there isn't in north korea at the moment seemingly an heir apparent we know that can be john his sister probably his strongest ally in north korea has possibly been groomed for the position but it's in no way certain that sh

il but did not respect him. what is your view of kim jong-un? as you know one of the reasons why kim survived, is elite force. we know -- elite loyalty, elite loyalty towards kim il-sung, elite support for kim jong-il. what you think of these views of kim jong-il? how much do they really support him? >> i'm not sure that, i'm not sure that's exactly the best question. it's more are they willing to -- i mean, they are willing to support him in the way that he protects their lifestyle. that's something to be mindful of, is that as odious as kim jong-un might be in his treatment of his people, there are still interests that are tied to him, and the way he is perched people and demoted and shuffled leaders around, that also means that they have a stake in the north korean economy as it is. the military and the party are very much involved in moneymaking operations, and the closer you are to the regime the more money you can make, the more opportunities you could have. so i think after think of it in terms of not loyalty to the kim jong-un itself what he represents, that kind of stability and the privilege that they are used to. >> okay. we have more questions? someone was

weeks ago the day of sun this is the day when the whole of north korea celebrates the birth date of kim il sung the founding father of north korea canada is banning assault style weapons after the country's deadliest mass shooting 2 weeks ago 22 people were killed in nova scotia when a man dressed as a policeman went on a shooting spree. fighting on the yemeni island of circuit for has stopped after an agreement was reached between government forces own u.a.e. backed separatists troops pushed back the separatists from the island's provincial capital on friday an agreement reached last month among the world's top oil producers to cut output has now come into effect the global oil benchmark brant crude hit a 21 year low last month was locked down and squeeze demand was also a price war between saudi arabia and russia the us president donald trump reportedly made veiled threats about withdrawing u.s. military forces from saudi arabia to pressure the kingdom into ending the price war and slashing output back to shadow world after that i'll have 30 minutes of al-jazeera world news hopefully see abou

the demilitarized zone started playing funeral songs for his grandfather said the misty founder kim il sung but the music quickly stopped and he was back to hold center stage till 994 kim jong il the father of the current leader was also the subject of many rumors about his health they were rampant for months in 2008 and even led to an investigation so let's take it on let's play through it kelly is a professor of political science and the players say national university joins us on skype from busan in south korea robert welcome to the program kim jong un he looks pretty healthy for a man killed off by rumor and speculation do you think this this ends the speculation or. not quite because there are photographs and there will be and navigable questions about whether or not north korean state media has doctored photographs but this is an improvement and certainly better than you know what chinese media saying saying are we going to use dan. but at some point you know we're going to see him actually sort of like walking around as like a live human being and my guess is that i hope we have that