Kim Jong-Un Finally Appears in Public
KCNA news agency
reports that the North Korean leader cut the ribbon at the opening of a
fertiliser factory.
It adds that people
at the factory "broke into thunderous cheers of hurrah" when he
appeared.
The reported
appearance - his first since an event on state media on 12 April - comes amid
global speculation over his health.
The latest reports
from North Korean media could not be independently confirmed and no pictures
were provided.
Asked about Mr Kim's
reported reappearance, US President Donald Trump told reporters that he didn't
want to comment yet.
According to Korean
Central News Agency (KCNA), Mr Kim was accompanied by several senior North
Korean officials, including his sister Kim Yo Jong.
The North Korean
leader cut a ribbon at a ceremony at the plant, in a region north of Pyongyang,
and people who were attending the event "burst into thunderous cheers of
'hurrah!' for the Supreme Leader who is commanding the all-people general march
for accomplishing the great cause of prosperity", KCNA says.
Mr Kim said he was
satisfied with the factory's production system, and praised it for contributing
to the progress of the country's chemical industry and food production, the
state news agency adds.
However, the agency
provided no photographs of the event.
Speculation about Mr
Kim's health began after he missed the birth anniversary celebrations of his
grandfather, state founder Kim Il Sung on 15 April.
The anniversary is
one of the biggest events in the North Korean calendar, and Mr Kim usually
marks it by visiting the mausoleum where his grandfather lies. Mr Kim had never
missed this event.
Claims about Mr
Kim's ill-health then surfaced in a report for a website run by North Korean
defectors.
An anonymous source
told the Daily NK that they understood he had been struggling with
cardiovascular problems since last August "but it worsened after repeated
visits to Mount Paektu".
This led to a chain
of reporting by international media on a single-sourced story.
News agencies then
began to run with that claim, and it was all they had until some reports
emerged that intelligence agencies in South Korea and the US were monitoring
the claim.
But then came a more
sensational headline in US media that the North Korean leader was in a critical
condition after heart surgery.
US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo appeared to stoke the rumours on 29 April, by saying US
officials "hadn't seen" Mr Kim recently.
However, a statement
from the South Korean government, and sources at Chinese intelligence -
speaking to the Reuters news agency - said this was not true.
Mr Kim went missing
for 40 days in September 2014, after attending a concert. He reappeared in
mid-October, using a cane.
State media never
explained where he had been. But South Korea's intelligence agency said he
probably had an operation on his left ankle stemming from problems with a cyst.
FROM .bbc.com/news/world-asia
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