US says Twitter rumors claiming death of North Korea leader Kim Jong-un 'untrue'

Nashville Herald (ANI) Saturday 11th February, 2012

United States officials have said that rumors claiming that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been assassinated in Beijing are not true.

Several US officials said there was no validity to the reports that originated on a Chinese social media site and soon spread to micro blogging site Twitter.

"There's nothing to this, " ABC News quoted one US official, as saying, adding that there were no indications that the reports were true.

"Our experts are monitoring the situation and we see no abnormal activity on the [Korean] peninsula and nothing that credits that tweet as accurate." said another US official.

Chinese micro-blogging service Weibo was flooded with rumors on Friday that Kim Jong-un was assassinated during a trip to Beijing.

The story gained traction on Twitter with re-tweets of what appeared to be confirmation of the reports by two BBC Twitter accounts.

However, a BBC Web article reported those twitter handles were fakes and have since been closed. (ANI)