I'm 99 per cent sure that Kim Jong Un is dead: North Korean defector, Ji Seong-ho

A North Korean defector claims he is '99 per cent sure' that Kim Jong Un is dead, saying that Pyongyang could announce the news this weekend.

Ji Seong-ho told South Korea's Yonhap news agency that he had been 'informed that Kim died last weekend' after cardiovascular surgery. The defector said Kim's sister Kim Yo-jong was in line to succeed her brother but said the secretive state was 'grappling with a complicated succession issue'. Kim has not been seen in public since April 11 and his absence has sparked a wave of speculation about his health, but Seoul and Washington have played down claims that he is seriously ill or dead. State-controlled media in North Korea has not provided any definitive proof that Kim is alive, beyond reports of letters sent in his name.