People watch a television broadcast reporting an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a news program on May 2, 2020 in Seoul, South Korea.
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
North Korean state media ended weeks of growing speculation about the health of Kim Jong-un by publishing photos and video of the brutal dictator cutting the ribbon on a fertilizer factory. The leader’s attendance at the ceremony Friday in Sunchon, near Pyongyang, marked the first public appearance for Kim in 20 days. Standing alongside him was his younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, who many had been predicting could be his likely successor. The footage showed Kim in apparent good spirits as he walked, talked, and smoked in his first public appearance since April 11. If he’s suffering from any new health problems they were not evident in the footage.
KCNA said Kim cut a ribbon at the factory Friday and those attending the event “broke into thunderous cheers of ‘hurrah!’ extending the greatest glory to the Supreme Leader.” The state media report did not mention Kim’s health. Although media outlets can’t independently confirm the photos and videos that were published by KCNA, South Korea confirmed Kim went to the fertilizer plant. The South Korean government, which had long been insisting that all was fine with Kim, harshly criticized those who had been speculating otherwise. “The groundless rumors about North Korea have caused various unnecessary economic, security and societal confusion and costs,” South Korea’s Unification Ministry said in a text message to reporters.
One thing the footage did reveal beyond Kim’s appearance was that the totalitarian government in Pyongyang is at least a little concerned about the coronavirus. Even though North Korea has been insisting there are no cases in the country, thousands of people who cheered Kim on at the factory were wearing face masks and standing at a distance from Kim and his aides. Kim and other government officials were not wearing masks, although Kim’s security detail did wear black masks.
As time has gone on, officials in both the United States and South Korea increasingly believe that the reason why Kim did not attend the ceremony to mark his grandfather’s birthday on April 15 had to do with the coronavirus. Intelligence analysts believe Kim went to a beach resort town after he learned in mid-April that some in his inner circle came down with a fever. “It now seems Kim may have merely been sheltering from the coronavirus,” reports the Washington Post.
The speculation of the previous weeks though brought to the forefront “an alarming fact,” notes the New York Times. “The world simply doesn’t know what would happen to the North and its nuclear arsenal should he suddenly die or become incapacitated.” There is no heir apparent to the 36-year-old Kim. All of his children are too young to govern and despite the speculation that his sister could take over it isn’t clear whether the country’s elderly generals would answer to a young woman who is believed to be in her early 30s. “If anything, the past 10 days of frenzied speculation have revealed our weaknesses in intelligence and in reporting on what is happening inside North Korea,” said Jean H. Lee, a North Korea expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
President Donald Trump declined to comment Friday on the reports that Kim had made a public appearance. “I’d rather not comment on it yet,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’ll have something to say about it at the appropriate time.”
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