North Korea has released photographs showing leader Kim Jong Un visiting a garment and footwear exhibition after unverified social media claims that he had died from a brain haemorrhage.
The country’s official Korean Central News Agency reported on Monday that Kim toured the exhibition, where he inspected children’s shoes and women’s coats and spoke with officials.
His daughter Ju-ae accompanied him, according to the photographs.
The images have not been independently authenticated, and it remains unclear when they were taken. North Korean authorities have not directly addressed the death rumours.
The New York Post reported that the claims began circulating on Sunday after Wanjun Xie, a US-based Chinese dissident associated with the China Democracy Party, alleged that Kim had suffered a severe cerebral haemorrhage, fallen into a coma and been taken to Beijing for treatment.
Xie also claimed that China had sent 9,000 troops to Pyongyang amid fears of a succession crisis, and that specialists from Beijing’s Peking Union Medical College Hospital had travelled to North Korea to treat Kim.
He alleged that Kim died in Beijing and that his body was secretly returned to North Korea.
Xie provided no medical records, identifiable witnesses or other independently verifiable evidence to support the allegations, the American newspaper said.
The claims nevertheless gained traction on social media and were picked up by international outlets.
The rumours also raised speculation about whether Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong had taken control of the country.
Kim’s health has long attracted international scrutiny.
On Sept 30, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers that he weighed about 140kg and faced an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease because of severe obesity.
However, the agency reportedly detected no significant signs of ill health, citing his ability to run up stairs during an inspection of a naval destroyer.
North Korean state media had earlier reported that Kim attended the inauguration of the National Defence Revolution Museum on Oct 11, with coverage published two days later.
That appearance preceded the alleged medical emergency and did not establish his condition at the time the rumours emerged.
The latest claims also echo a false alarm in 2020, when Ji Seong-ho, a North Korean defector who later became a South Korean lawmaker, said he was 99 percent certain Kim had died following cardiovascular surgery.
Kim subsequently appeared in public, and Ji apologised for the claim.