The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, was absent from a key ruling party celebration on Friday, triggering further speculation over his whereabouts and the state of his health.
But as rumours swirled over his fate, well-placed officials and analysts dismissed reports that the 31-year-old has been removed in a coup d’état.
Kim, who became supreme leader in December 2011, was not among the names on the list of dignitaries attending an event in Pyongyang to mark the 69th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers’ party. His absence, despite having attended the event for the past two years, will lend weight to rumours that he has been incapacitated by illness.
Kim has not been seen in public since 3 September when he attended a concert with his wife, Ri Sol-ju. Earlier this year, he was shown on state TV with a pronounced limp that sections of the South Korean media attributed to gout.
On Friday, Reuters cited an unnamed source as saying that Kim had injured his leg during a military inspection. “[Kim] ordered all the generals to take part in drills and he took part too,” a source with access to the North Korean leadership said on condition of anonymity.
“They were crawling and running and rolling around, and he pulled a tendon. He injured his ankle and knee around late August or early September while on a drill because he is overweight. He limped around in the beginning but the injury worsened. Kim Jong-un is in total control.”
Last month, state media conceded that Kim, the third member of his family to rule the secretive Communist state, was experiencing “discomfort” but did not disclose details of his ailment. The rare admission of physical weakness sent the international rumour mill into overdrive; Kim’s absence on Friday is expected to add to the speculation.
The official guest list for Friday’s anniversary event included senior government, party and military officials, but not Kim, whose weight gain in recent months has been blamed on a liking for rich food and attempts to strengthen his physical resemblance to his grandfather and North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung.
But in a sign that Kim’s problems are purely physical, rather than political, the official news agency, KCNA, released a statement in which it said the ruling party was “growing stronger under the seasoned guidance of Marshal Kim Jong-un”.
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, meanwhile, described Kim as the symbol of the Workers’ party’s “dignity and invincibility”.
Officials in Seoul said that despite his ailment, Kim remained in control. Lim Byeong-cheol, a unification ministry spokesman, noted that a high-ranking North Korean delegation that visited the South Korean capital last week had passed on a greeting from Kim to the president, Park Geun-hye.
North Korean media continued to heap praise on Kim’s leadership, Lim said. “There are continuous reports concerning the exercise of Kim Jong-un’s leadership,” he added. “Judging from these, it seems that Kim Jong-un is ruling normally.”
Media reports said Kim had not paid a customary visit in the early hours of Friday to Kumsusan mausoleum in Pyongyang where the embalmed remains of his grandfather and his father, Kim Jong-il, are interred.
His absence from the party meeting that followed is not unusual given that this is not considered a particularly auspicious year; the celebrations are expected to be more ostentatious next year, when the party marks its 70th anniversary.
Kim may have been the victim of his own desire to appear more accessible than his predecessors. While his father shunned the limelight, his son has made a point of being regularly photographed among soldiers, factory workers and other ordinary North Koreans, often accompanied by his wife.
