There are worries about who controls the North Korean nuclear stockpile

There are serious concerns we've seen the last of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un shooting hoops with Dennis Rodman. Many think Kim is dead.

Bruce Klingner at the Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center started following the North when he was with the CIA.

"Prior to that I'd worked the Soviet Union and in retrospect that was an open book compared to North Korea."

Klingner says it's not unusual to see members of the Kim family disappear from time to time.

"He was absent from view for six weeks back in 2014 and then he came back with a cane, we think he had gout. There were other times when his father and grandfather were absent for weeks or months."

Klingner says the worry is, if Kim is dead, who his successor is and how safe is the North's nuclear arsenal.

Some consider it an intelligence failure that we're not sure. But Klingner says the North does a good job keeping state secrets.

"When the previous leader, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011 all the indications are the CIA, along with North Korean ministries, didn't know about his death for two days until the official announcement."

Klingner says, although the Kim family is known to kill its own during power struggles, he doubts that's the case here.


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