By Lucas Shaw at Reuters and Allison Cross at the National Post
Did social media prematurely kill off the leader of North Korea?
Rumours that Kim Jong-un, the country’s supreme leader, was assassinated at the North Korean embassy in Beijing just months after he took power originated on Chinese microblogging service Weibo, and spread swiftly on Twitter on Friday.
Jong-un was thrust into power in the communist nation after the death of his father Kim Jong-il. Believed to be in his 20s, Kim Jong-un and his inexperience have sparked concern in the international community over whether he is capable of ruling North Korea.
Some reported Jong-un wasn’t actually dead, but that some kind of coup was taking place. By Friday afternoon, the North Korean government — admittedly not well known for their transparency with the outside world — had neither confirmed nor denied the rumours.
As Adrian Chen at Gawker wrote, these types of reports crop up often given the furtive nature of North Korea’s government.
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