U.S. Media Fall For Kim Jong Un Rumor From U.S. Government Financed Propaganda Outlet

By Moon Of Alabama

April 22, 2020 "Information Clearing House" - U.S. media went crazy today over a rumor from South Korea which said that the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was near to death:

CNN Breaking News @cnnbrk - 1:49 UTC · Apr 21, 2020
US is monitoring intelligence that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in grave danger after surgery, according to a US official https://cnn.it/2KkCVph

The New York Times @nytimes - 4:00 UTC · Apr 21, 2020
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is receiving treatment after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month, a South Korean media report said, amid speculation over Kim’s health following his absence from a key anniversary event https://nyti.ms/2RW1GMN

What the CNN, NBC News and the NY Times did not say is that the 'South Korean media report' over grave illness of Kim Jong Un, on which their reporting was based, came from the Daily NK website and was itself based on a single anonymous source allegedly from North Korea.

The South Korean and the Chinese government have both rejected the reports:

Two South Korean government officials rejected an earlier CNN report citing an unnamed U.S. official saying Washington was “monitoring intelligence” that Kim was in grave danger after surgery, but they did not elaborate on whether Kim had undergone surgery. The presidential Blue House said there were no unusual signs coming from North Korea.
...
An official at the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, which deals with North Korea, told Reuters the source did not believe Kim was critically ill. China is North Korea’s only major ally.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing was aware of reports about the health of Kim, but said it does not know their source, without commenting on whether it has any information about the situation.

The report was bad for the South Korean markets:

South Korean shares exposed to North Korea tumbled and the Korean won fell on the reports. The won traded down more than 1% against the dollar even as South Korean government sources said Kim was not gravely ill.

The DailyNK has since published a correction. It now says that Kim might have had a heart problem but is recovering well. The NBC News correspondent Katy Tur deleted her tweet out of a laughable 'abundance of caution'.