North Korea election turnout was 99.99%, claims state media

Kim Jong-un not among candidates, in surprise move that makes him first leader not to sit on national assembly

Kim Jong-un casts his ballot in his country's national elections (EPA)

Almost every North Korean citizen voted in the country’s latest elections, state media has claimed, but in a surprise move Kim Jong-un was not on the ballot.

Turnout in the rubber-stamp polls – in which voters were presented with just one state-sanctioned candidate per seat – was 99.9 per cent, according to the official KCNA news agency.

The figure – unimaginable in a Western democracy - is an increase on the 99.7 per cent turnout reported in the previous elections in 2014.

North Korea's elections are used by Pyongyang give its rule a veneer of legitimacy, but the vote is internationally condemned as a sham.

Candidates for the Supreme People’s Assembly are selected by the ruling Korean Workers' Party and other smaller coalition parties that have seats in the legislature but exercise little independent power.

Voters cast their ballots to show their approval or, very rarely, cross the candidates’ name out to show disapproval.

One hundred per cent of the votes in Sunday’s election were in favour of the named candidates, according to KNCA – the same proportion as five years ago.

Turnout fell short of 100 per cent because people “abroad or working in oceans” were unable to take part, the agency claimed.

Mr Kim was not among the 687 candidates, marking the first time a North Korean leader has not sat on the assembly.

It is unclear why he did not run, but analysts have suggested the omission could be part of Mr Kim’s attempts to project himself as the leader of a legitimate democratic state with a separation of executive and legislature.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency suggested it showed “that his grip on power is slipping”.

Mr Kim's younger sister, Yo-jong, was among the newly elected assembly members, reported Yonhap, citing Pyongyang's state media. Foreign minister Ri Yong-ho and his deputy Choe Son-hui, who have led nuclear talks with the US, are also thought to have been among the candidates.

The fully assembly generally meet just once or twice a year, usually in March or April, to approve policies already hashed out by the ruling party, which is headed by Mr Kim.

A much smaller group of members meets more often and is more closely involved in the actual functions of the government.