🧩 BND Motif Index · M1113
Greatly exaggerated
A leader is said to be dead, again: a stroke, a coma, a secret flight abroad for treatment, until the next photo shows him on a tour. Kim Jong Un in 2020 and again now, the 'Trump is dead' weekend of 2025: the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated.
📜 Plots🗂️ Death🗂️ Information integrity
- 4claims filed under it
- 1right show it came up on
- 2claims retold online
- 1fact-checker
⚠️ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.
A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.
🪜 Its family
what it rests on, what rests on it, and the motifs that answer it
🪜 rests on 🧩 The ailing king
🔗 goes with: 🧩 Found dead
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up, by the show's lean
🫏 left 0
🦗 none of our left shows, so far
⚖️ center 0
🦗 none of our center shows, so far
🐘 right 1
"Came up on" means one of its claims was heard on the show: told, reported or argued against. We don't yet mark which. Show leans are our own grouping of the shows we transcribe.
📰 In the news
the stories its claims were told about, the most told first (matched by our tools, so a link can be wrong)
- 📰 North Korea releases photos of Kim Jong Un after death rumors 2026-10-20 to 2026-10-21
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-23 “Speculation exists that Kim Jong-un may be in a coma.”
🎙️ Timcast IRL (podcast) - 2026-10-21 “Kim Jong Un died from a brain hemorrhage or myocarditis and went to Beijing for treatment because of poor medical facilities in North Korea.” 🔎 Snopes
- 2026-10-21 “Kim Jong Un died of a brain hemorrhage in Beijing.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-20 “Kim Jong Un has died or is in a coma.” 🧶 people online
M1113 · first seen 2026-10-24 · last 2026-10-26 · what this is · how the index works