Korea's forex market fluctuates on rumors of Kim Jong Un’s death

As rumors of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s death circulated in South Korea on Friday morning, related South Korean ministries scrambled to verify the factuality of the news in an unexpected fuss. The South Korean government denied the report, but the foreign exchange market fluctuated for a while, among other aftereffects.

An overseas media outlet called "East Asia Tribune" carried a report entitled "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dead after apparent suicide attack" on its website on Thursday. Saying that North Korea’s Korean Central TV reported the news, the media outlet claimed that a woman approached Kim Jong Un who was attending a ceremony held in an area in the Botong River in Pyongyang, and detonated something that is believed to be a suicide belt, adding that Kim Jong Un died before reaching hospital.

On the news, South Korean authorities were also on high alert for a while, with the Unification Ministry saying the information lacks credibility, and the National Defense Ministry also denying it by saying that there is no change to Kim Jong Un’s situation. “We cannot even confirm‎ whether the media network actually exits or not,” the South Korean intelligence agency said. In the meanwhile, the North’s Korean Central TV station did not report on abnormal conditions surrounding Kim Jong Un’s situation at all. Soon after the release of the report, rumors circulated suggesting that North Korean hackers embedded malign code in the news report, but the Korea Internet and Security Agency checked to find there are no malign codes.

After all, the fuss over news on Kim Jong Un’s death ended merely as happening due to a "false report." The website in question was full of groundless reports that were fabricated and created randomly and freely. A write-up in news report format, which was posted on Tuesday, suggested that Beijing introduced "alternative breathing policy," in which citizens are divided into groups who are allowed to breathe on even or odd days, in order to reduce air pollution, which was ridiculous at best.

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