North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been absent from state media for three weeks now, marking the fifth time this year that he has gone missing for at least 20 days straight.

This time around, Kim has disappeared from the public eye between two major domestic political events, and his missing streak also coincides with the precarious U.S. presidential transition period.

On Thursday, an official from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification told reporters not to assume the worst about Kim’s absence, stating that ministry officials “are not attributing any specific meaning” to it. But while Kim’s current stint