Coverage of Kim Jong Un’s three-week absence from public view verged at times on the farcical.

Exemplified by one American broadcaster’s transformation of news of a minor medical procedure into a life-threatening condition over the course of an afternoon, it reaffirmed that, all too often, anything is possible in non-specialist North Korea reporting.

However, while much went badly awry, the subject of Kim Jong Un’s well being and any future power succession is justified.

As Daniel Pinkston wrote in NK News last week, it matters who controls the guns and