SEOUL, South Korea — The first photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il released in two months show him in a setting very similar to photographs from August. And the verdant background looks more like summer than autumn, adding to uncertainty about Kim’s health after reports he underwent brain surgery.
North Korea released the undated still photos and video-frame grabs Saturday accompanying a report by North Korean television that Kim visited a military unit. They were the first photos of Kim published since Aug. 14; and in both sets of pictures he wears his trademark dark sunglasses and a khaki jumpsuit.
“They didn’t appear to have been taken recently,” Kim Yong-Hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University, said Monday of the pictures carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. “To me, it looked like they were taken in June or July.”
The 66-year-old communist leader disappeared from public view in mid-August and failed to make appearances on two national holidays — leading to speculation he was seriously ill. American and South Korean officials said he suffered a stroke and had brain surgery; North Korea has denied he is ailing.
For North Korea watchers, the photos released over the weekend raise more questions about Kim’s health — as well as the motive and timing of the publication. The images came out before the United States removed North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism, tempering rising tensions over the North’s nuclear development.
Kim disappeared from view at the same time his country stopped dismantling its nuclear program under an international disarmament accord. The North was angered by the U.S. refusal to remove it from the terrorism sponsors list, long a demand of the communist regime.
The North Korean leader has long been believed to suffer from diabetes and heart disease. The latest images released showed no sign Kim was ill or had brain surgery. He was shown viewing troops in training, clapping and talking to them while looking around their barracks dotted with red-and-white slogans urging loyalty to him.
South Korean newspapers also said the pictures do not appear to be recent.
“Grass and trees in the photos show the typical sight of a summer landscape, though it is time that autumn leaves are visible in North Korea,” the daily Kukmin Ilbo said.
The paper also said South Korean intelligence had seen no unusual movements where the military unit Kim reportedly visited is located, as would be expected had he visited.
The North’s release of the pictures should not be taken as evidence that Kim’s health has deteriorated, said Hong Hyun-Ik, a North Korea analyst at the security think tank Sejong Institute.
“Kim Jong-Il cannot appear in public unless he is in perfect shape,” Hong said. “I think North Korea released the pictures to show its people that their supreme leader is up and going, as the regime prepares to use its removal from the U.S. terrorism list as propaganda for the leader.”
Kim, the Dongguk University professor, said the images appeared to be intended not only for the North Korean people, but for U.S. audiences.
“Would the United States have removed North Korea from the terrorism list if Kim Jong-Il’s health is serious?” he asked rhetorically. “I think the North must have felt the need to put an end to speculation about his health ahead of its removal from the terror list.”
