April 30 (UPI) -- North Korea is deploying "secret police" to track down people in the country who may be spreading rumors of Kim Jong Un's health.
Japanese news service Asia Press' Korean service reported Thursday the number of North Koreans who believe Kim may be in critical condition is rising, citing conversations with sources in North Korea that took place on smuggled Chinese mobile phones.
North Korea state media has not issued any statements addressing Kim's health. Kim, who has been missing for 19 days, has not been seen in public, but on Thursday Workers' Party paper Rodong Sinmun said Kim received a congratulatory message from Liberal Democratic Party of Russia chairman Vladimir Zhirinovsky, on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the first summit between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In North Korea, informal markets are becoming centers of gossip regarding Kim, according to Asia Press.
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"Rumors of Kim Jong Un's death, or surgery, have been coming and going among women vendors at markets," the news service's North Korea-based source said. "The [secret police] are calling the information 'wild rumors' and has begun to crack down on those who spread information."
North Korea was sending security agents from Pyongyang to the border region in early March, the report says.
The government is sending more agents following rumors from China about Kim, because Ryanggang Province, which faces the China border, is a key source of information from the outside world.
A source in North Pyongan Province told Asia Press security has heightened in the area amid speculation about the North Korean leader.
"The North Korean authorities' crackdown on the spread of information seems to be an overreaction," Asia Press reported.
The Trump administration has dismissed reports of Kim's health.
"Regardless of what transpires inside North Korea our mission remains the same, and that's the full verifiable denuclearization of North Korea," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday.
