North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in 20 days as he celebrated the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, state media said Saturday, ending an absence that had triggered global rumors that he was seriously ill.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Kim attended the ceremony Friday in Suncheon with other senior officials, including his sister Kim Yo Jong, who many analysts predict would take over if her brother is suddenly unable to rule.
Neither the KCNA nor the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper immediately released photos online from the ceremony.
It was Kim's first public appearance since April 11, when he presided over a ruling Workers' Party meeting to discuss the coronavirus and reappoint his sister as an alternate member of the powerful decision-making political bureau of the party's central committee. That move confirmed her substantial role in the government.
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Speculation about his health swirled after he missed the April 15 birthday celebration for his late grandfather Kim Il Sung, the country's most important holiday, for the first time since taking power in 2011.
Without publishing images, state media reported he was carrying out routine activities outside public view, such as sending greetings to the leaders of Syria, Cuba and South Africa and expressing gratitude to workers building tourist facilities in the coastal town of Wonsan, where some speculated he was staying.
South Korea's government, which has a mixed record of tracking Pyongyang's ruling elite, repeatedly downplayed speculation that Kim, believed to be 36, was in poor health following surgery.
The office of President Moon Jae-in said it detected no unusual signs in North Korea or any emergency reaction by the country's ruling party, military and cabinet. It said it believed Kim was still managing state affairs but staying at an unspecified location outside Pyongyang.
It wasn't immediately clear what caused Kim's absence in past weeks. In 2014, Kim vanished from the public eye for nearly six weeks and then reappeared with a cane. South Korea's spy agency said he had a cyst removed from his ankle.
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North Korea US Nuclear Diplomacy
FILE- In this June 30, 2019, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the North Korean side of the border at the village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone. North Korea on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019, accused U.S. officials of maintaining hostility against Pyongyang despite a "special" relationship between Kim and Trump and urged Washington to act "wisely" through the end of the year. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Trump US North Korea
President Donald Trump talks to the media with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, and Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, rear left, at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, Sunday, June 30, 2019 after he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Trump Korea DMZ
President Donald Trump, left, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, walk together at the border village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, Sunday, June 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
#15. Kim Jong Un
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has become somewhat of a fixation for Americans around the country — and as you read over 350 articles from 33 brands about the dictator, his threats of nuclear violence and missile tests have become harder to ignore. And most of all, you wanted to know what exactly North Korea wants from the U.S. The year started off with an unwelcome reminder of North Korea’s chemical and biological weaponry, when Kim Jong-un’s older half brother, Kim-Jong-nam, was found to have been likely killed by North Korea, using a VX nerve agent that was rubbed on his face in Malaysia. According to a terrorism expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, the attack was likely a show of power to the rest of the world. “By using VX in an international airport in the heart of Asia,” said Rohan Gunaratna, “North Korea has sent a very clear message to the world that it will strike its enemies anywhere in the world.” North Korean experts have revealed that Kim Jong-un and the North Korean government are looking for a formal end to the Korean War, to keep its nuclear program and have its United Nations-imposed sanctions lifted. But as long as North Korea continues to conduct missile tests (one intermediate-range missile successfully struck at the same distance as Guam), it doesn’t seem like anyone will be inspired to sit at the negotiating table.
