Alive and rolling: Kim crosses new Yalu bridge by car as false death rumors spread

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may have used an unprecedented car trip to China on Saturday to dispel unfounded rumors of his death that had spread online, analysts say.

The North's official Korean Central Television aired footage Sunday of Kim's Mercedes-Maybach crossing the newly opened New Yalu River Bridge during his visit to Dandong, China. It was apparently the first time Kim had crossed an international border by car, having used his private train or plane on five previous visits to China.

Diplomatic observers also see the choice of transport as an attempt to highlight the bridge, which opened Oct. 15 and has become a symbol of renewed economic cooperation between North Korea and China. But the trip also came days after a U.S.-based Chinese dissident spread an unsubstantiated claim that Kim had died from a brain hemorrhage.

Xie Wanjun, a U.S.-based Chinese dissident, claimed on X last Sunday that Kim had "suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage and fell into a coma." Xie alleged that the North Korean leader had been transferred to Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing for emergency treatment, where he "succumbed to his injuries and died."

Xie offered no evidence for the claims, which spread through social media and some foreign news outlets. Kim's appearance in Dandong days later made clear that the reports of his death were false.

However, no evidence shows Kim chose his mode of transport specifically to counter them.

Kim visited the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea in Dandong on Saturday to mark the 76th anniversary of the Chinese entry into the 1950-53 Korean War, Rodong Sinmun reported Sunday.

After the visit, Kim returned home over the new bridge. Wang Huning, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and other Chinese officials accompanied him to the midpoint to see him off. Kim posed for commemorative photographs with Wang and said he expected the bridge to fulfill its mission of linking the countries and bringing their peoples closer together, according to Rodong Sinmun's English-language account.

Kim has been the subject of false health and death rumors before. In September 2014, speculation spread after he disappeared from public view for more than 40 days. It subsided when North Korean media showed him on an inspection visit using a cane. South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from an ankle bone.

In April 2020, Kim missed events marking the Day of the Sun, the birthday of North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung. Daily NK, an outlet specializing in North Korea, reported claims that he had undergone a cardiovascular procedure. CNN later reported, citing a U.S. official with direct knowledge, that intelligence suggested Kim was "in grave danger following a surgery." Rumors that he was brain-dead proved false when he resumed public activities.

A prolonged absence in July 2021 fueled rumors that Kim's uncle, Kim Pyong-il, had staged a coup. In May 2025, false reports circulated that Kim had suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage during a field inspection in Wonsan. Neither claim proved true.

Analysts see the persistent rumors as a reflection of concerns over Kim's health and the geopolitical consequences of a sudden leadership vacuum in the nuclear-armed state.

The NIS told the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee on Sept. 30 that Kim was severely obese, weighed in the 140-kilogram range (roughly 309 to 328 pounds) and faced a high risk of cardiovascular disease.

"North Korea does not have a stable successor in place, and the absence of the supreme leader of a nuclear-armed North Korea would have major repercussions for the situation in Northeast Asia and market stability, which appears to be why such rumors keep emerging," Kim Jae-chun, a professor at Sogang University's Graduate School of International Studies, said.

BY CHUNG YEONG-GYO, SHIM SEOK-YONG [[email protected]]