Kim Jong-un puffs on a cigarette as he warns of coronavirus HEALTH crisis amid claims he was in a coma
KIM Jong-un is seen smoking a cigarette as he discusses the health crisis posed by coronavirus in pictures released by North Korean state media.
The images come after days of speculation about the health of the 36-year-old following claims by a former South Korean official that he was in a coma.
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Pictures published today showed him chairing an enlarged meeting of the politburo of the Workers Party, although questions have been raised about the authenticity of similar photos released recently.
The meeting was reportedly called amid concerns about the impact of the coronavirus in North Korea as well as Typhoon Bavi, set to hit the Korean peninsula on Thursday.
The extent to which the coronavirus has spread within North Korea is not known, but state media did report suspected cases in July, and border closures as well as ongoing sanctions are known to have hurt the country's economy.
The meeting assessed “some defects in the state emergency anti-epidemic work for checking the inroads of the malignant virus”, state media agency KCNA said in a statement.
Despite the known impact of the coronavirus on the respiratory system, pictures from the meeting show Kim holding a half-smoked cigarette.
Kim has also long been significantly overweight, another risk factor for anyone who contracts the virus.
The meeting marks one of only a handful of occasions on which Kim has appeared in public in recent months.
Speculation about his health first arose in April after he failed to attend the Day of the Sun, an important annual event to celebrate the birthday of Kim Il-Sung, Kim's grandfather and the founder of North Korea.
Reports later suggested that he had undergone heart surgery after collapsing while on a walk.
Footage previously released by state media showed Kim on a number of public outings, although it is not known whether the footage is recent or was shot before his retreat from public view.
State media has been known to doctor photographs in the past, including some featuring Kim.
However, comparisons between reference points in the footage and commercially-available satellite images suggested that it was genuine, NK News reported.
Photos released last week also purported to show Kim chairing a meeting of scores of members of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on August 19.
Rumours about Kim's health resurfaced this week after Chang Song-min, a former aide to late South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung, said he believed that senior figures within the regime were trying to conceal a decline.
“I assess him to be in a coma, but his life has not ended," Chang said.
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