Kim Jong-un looks noticeably slimmer in images released by state media, prompting speculation about his health

Last week, Kim Jong-un made a public appearance after a gap of several weeks

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is looking noticeably slimmer in the latest images released by state media last week, prompting speculation about his health, after disappearing from public view for more than a month.

The experts closely following North Korea and its leaders said that Kim Jong-un may have lost a significant amount of weight, reported NK News. It compared the pictures of the North Korean leader from November-December, 2020, to April, 2021, and June, 2021.

Last week, he made a public appearance after about a month. On 1 June, reports said North Korea has created a position for a second-in-command after Kim Jong-un.

The analysis in the report said the length of the strap past the buckle on the Swiss company watch worn by Kim Jong-un in his latest pictures appear longer, indicating a slimmer wrist.

Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said if he has intentionally lost weight to get healthier then it “likely improves his position at home.”

Mr Narang explained to NK News that Kim Jong-un’s stable position at home means “more predictability” for countries such as Japan, South Korea and the US.

“If [the sudden weight loss] is due to a health condition though, the jockeying for his succession may already be happening behind the scenes, and that volatility could be trouble for the outside world,” said Mr Narang.

“Is it just the camera angle or has Kim lost a *lot* of weight?” he had tweeted on 6 June.

The health of the North Korean leader has been a matter of intense interest among the experts and foreign intelligence agencies including South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), as there have been a few instances of him disappearing for weeks from the public eye.

Earlier, experts assessed that he is at high risk of cardiovascular disease. His family reportedly has a history of heart issues as well. In November 2020, the NIS had reportedly told South Korean lawmakers that they believed Kim Jong-un weighed about 140 kilograms.

While Mike Brodka, an intelligence officer for US Special Operations Command in South Korea, was quoted saying that “on the surface, noticeable weight loss may not mean much, but it can provide clues to other information that intelligence collectors look for.”

He said it’s “important for intelligence to look at different sources of information and indicators of linked events to try and answer” the real situation in Pyongyang.

“It may be a simple matter of a healthy lifestyle change or a more complex issue. Right now, we do not know, but it raises enough serious questions that we must pay attention to events over the next couple of months to find out,” he said.

However, Tom Fowdy, an analyst focusing on North Korea and China, said “Kim Jong-un health speculations and the Wuhan Laboratory leak are similar themes of media discourse.”

Kim Jong-un earlier this year (left), alongside a photo from a recent meeting which led to suggestions he had lost weight (AP/Reuters)

He tweeted that both thrive on “public imagination of sinister, mysterious ‘Communist Fantasy’ which dramatically overthinks everything with the search for dark motivations or actions”.

“It’s reminiscent of American Cold War themes, suspicion, infiltration, distrust, with every benign thing betrayed as a political and sinister plot in some day to the point common sense is lost as a sense of judgement or analysis. There must always be something ‘more,’” said Mr Fowdy.

Since resurfacing last week, Kim Jong-un is being seen in full control. On 8 June, the state media had reported that he held a political meeting, discussed solutions to economic issues of the country and is to attend a party plenary meeting later this week.

Leif-Eric Easley, who is associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said the North Korean leader uses high-profile government meetings to “appear in command of managing North Korea’s social and economic challenges while spreading blame and responsibility among senior officials”.

“Kim’s convening these meetings also temporarily dispels rumours of poor health, after he goes weeks without a public appearance. International observers speculated about succession planning given the possibility of a new ‘First Secretary’ being named under Kim’s leading position of ‘General Secretary’ of the Workers’ Party. But what Kim is actually doing is trying to develop governing institutions,” he said.