North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in nearly three weeks, with the country's media publishing images of him on Saturday. In recent weeks, there was speculation that Kim Jong Un was seriously ill following a heart surgery.
Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim Jong Un attended a ceremony to mark completion of a fertiliser plant at Sunchon on Friday. Kim Jong Un was flanked by officials, including his sister Kim Yo Jong, whom some experts considered as a potential successor.
South Korea's The Korea Times reported the images showed, "Kim wearing black and smiling as he looked around the factory and cut a red ribbon, his sister looking from behind. Seemingly thousands of workers, many of them masked, stood in lines at the massive complex, releasing balloons into the air."
However, US President Donald Trump refused to comment on the authenticity of the KCNA photos. Trump told reporters “I’d rather not comment on it yet. We’ll have something to say about it at the appropriate time.”
This was Kim Jong Un's first public appearance since April 11 when he presided over a meeting of the ruling party to discuss the coronavirus situation and reappointed his sister to membership of the Political Bureau, a powerful decision-making body. Concern over Kim Jong Un's health spiked after he missed the birth anniversary of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder, on April 15. The celebration is North Korea's most important holiday.
However, US and South Korean officials had been non-committal on speculating about the health of Kim Jong Un, given North Korea's reputation of being deliberately opaque.
