North Korea steps up bid to show "recovered" Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean state TV broadcast pictures of Kim Jong-il on Saturday as the reclusive country stepped up its campaign to show its leader was healthy after reports surfaced last month he may have suffered a stroke.
U.S. and South Korean officials said Kim, 66, may have taken severely ill in August, raising questions about succession in Asia's only communist dynasty and about who was making decisions on its nuclear program.
Last week, Kim made his first public appearance in nearly 50 days when he attended a soccer match, according to reports from the North's state media monitored in Seoul.
His state's media said early on Saturday that he inspected a women's military unit. Images of that visit were later broadcast on state TV, the first such photographs of Kim taking part in a recent event in nearly two months.
The North's TV broadcaster did not say when the inspection took place, but it showed pictures of Kim in sunglasses posing and talking with the women soldiers. The North usually does not say when Kim makes his so-called "field-guidance" visits.
In the photographs, Kim wears sunglasses and looks healthy. His trademark paunch is pressed against his brownish-gray jumpsuit and he appears to move easily.
The North's KCNA news agency said of the visit: "walking in the compound of the barracks, he (Kim) watched the thick verdure formed by trees of various species .... and praised the women soldiers for having tended even a single tree and a blade of grass of the country with ardent patriotism."
Analysts said the average North Korea has probably heard that Kim may have fallen ill. Even though the state is one of the world's most isolated, there is a strong word-of-mouth network and information flows in from the likes of neighbor China.
Brian Myers, a specialist on North Korea's propaganda apparatus, said: "It is very predictable that they brought him out with the first picture with military people.
"That is the image that he wants to send out to the country, the image of the military-first leader who is still in full control of the military," Myers said.
South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Friday that Kim failed to appear at a ceremony marking the anniversary of his communist party. Kim often appears at related events where he is seen by tens of thousands of North Koreans who shout praises in unison.
The exact health of Kim, known at home as the "Dear Leader," is one of the North's most closely guarded secrets.
"They certainly have an incentive to lie and to say that he is healthy if he is still in bed, but on the other hand, there is no clear reason to disbelieve them either," Myers said.
South Korean intelligence sources said they believed Kim was recovering and that he had not lost his grip on power.
(Editing by Jerry Norton)
