Kim Jong-un appears in public for first time in 20 days, North Korean state media reports

Leader attends ceremony to mark completion of fertiliser factory, reports KCNA

Kim Jong-un has made his first public appearance in 20 days, according to state media in North Korea.

The absence of the country’s leader over the last three weeks triggered rumours he was dead or in a coma after failed heart surgery.

However, the official Korean Central News Agency said Kim attended a ceremony on Friday to mark the completion of a fertiliser factory near Pyongyang.

They reported he attended with senior officials including his sister and putative successor Kim Yo-jong. Photographs released by the North Korean government appeared to confirm this.

Speculation about Kim’s health began after he missed the birthday celebration for his late grandfather Kim Il Sung on 15 April.

It was the first time he was not present for the important holiday in North Korea since taking power in 2011.

Over the next two weeks state media reported that Kim was carrying out routine activities such as sending greetings to the leaders of Syria, Cuba and South Africa.

However he has not made a public appearance since presiding over a ruling Workers’ Party meeting to discuss the coronavirus on 11 April.

On that day he reappointed his sister as an alternate member of the decision-making political bureau of the party’s central committee.

The next day the government issued an undated picture of Mr Kim inspecting an air defence unit.

Last week Reuters reported that China had sent a team of medical experts to North Korea. However it was unclear what, if anything, was wrong with the North Korean leader.

On Monday Donald Trump said he had a good idea how Mr Kim was doing and hoped he was fine – without elaborating on what he knew.

And earlier this week a South Korean minister said the North Korean leader’s unexplained absence could be due to him being afraid of contracting coronavirus.

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.

Additional reporting by agencies