As it turns out, rumors of Kim Jong Un‘s death were greatly exaggerated. 

Because just as the chatter began, North Korea appeared to push back. The country’s state newspaper Rodong Sinmund published recent images of Kim touring a Pyongyang clothing and footwear exhibition with his daughter Kim Ju Ae after Wanjun Xie, the self-identified chairman of the Chinese Democratic Party, claimed the dictator had suffered a brain hemorrhage and died.

The photos certainly brought into question the story that Xie had been shopping around. 

Though he had no evidence, the Chinese dissident claimed in a series of posts on X that after Kim’s medical episode, the 42-year-old lost consciousness and was transferred to Beijing’s Peking Union Medical College Hospital due to inadequate medical facilities in North Korea. Per Xie, the leader died there and his body was secretly returned to North Korea. 

“Rumors of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have been circulating online for days,” he wrote in one Oct. 19 missive, “but Kim Jong Un has not yet made a public appearance to deny them. This indirectly confirms that the rumors of Kim Jong Un’s death are likely true.”