China sent out a group to North Korea to counsel North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, comprising medical professionals, as per the three sources familiar with the matter.
The Chinese medical professionals' and officials' travel comes despite the North Korean leader's contradictory health records.
On Thursday, a team headed by a senior member of the Foreign Relations Department of the Chinese Communist Party departed Beijing for North Korea, two of the people stated, "The department, as a principal Chinese body, is concerned with North Korea as our neighbor."
Given the seriousness of the subject, the informants refused to reveal their identities.
Earlier this week, Daily N.K., a South Korea-based website, announced that Kim was healing from a cardiovascular surgery on April 12. It has cited an unspecified North Korean source.
South Korean state officials and a Chinese liaison officer questioned recent claims saying Kim was in significant danger after the operation. South Korean officials said that they had found no indications of suspicious North Korean activity.
U.S. President Donald Trump also dismissed previous claims on Thursday that Kim was severely ill. "I think the story was false," Trump told media, but he refused to say whether he was in contact with North Korean officials.
A South Korean source on Friday released information that their knowledge was that Kim was alive and would possibly make an appearance eventually. The source said he had no experience in the current state of Kim or any affairs with the Chinese.
An insider with U.S. intelligence said Kim is suffering from serious health issues. Still, they had no reason to think that he had been severely ill or, ultimately, unable to make an appearance publicly.
A spokesperson for the U.S. state department had no statement. When questioned about Kim's wellbeing on Fox News after Trump commented, the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, responded, "I don't have anything I could discuss with you currently, but the American people need to understand that we are monitoring the situation very closely."
North Korea is one of the most segregated and closed nations in the world, and its leaders' wellbeing is a matter of state security.
State news agency in North Korea recently published reports on Kim's exact location when he presided over an April 11 assembly. State media did not say he was attending an event to commemorate his grandfather's birthday, Kim Il Sung, on April 15, a significant anniversary in North Korea.
Kim, whose age is around 36, has already faded from reporting of North Korean state media.
He disappeared for more than a month in 2014, and afterward, North Korean state media had shown him walking with a limp. His excessive and heavy smoking, substantial weight gain after he gained power and family histories of cardiovascular issues have flared rumors about his health condition.
When Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, suffered from a stroke in 2008, the South Korean press initially reported that Chinese medical professionals, together with French doctors, were engaged in his case.
Last year Chinese President Xi Jinping initiated his first foreign trip to North Korea in 14 years by a Chinese official. This economically depressed nation relies on diplomatic and economic aid from Beijing.
China is the sole ally of North Korea, and the economic haven for tough-hit U.N. sanctions, and a vested interest in the nation's security in which it holds a long, porous frontier.
Kim is a hereditary member of the third generation, who rose to power since his father Kim Jong Il suffered and died from a heart attack in 2011. Since 2018 he has been to China four times.
