Kim Jong-un reappears after six-week absence

Kim Jong-Un

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has finally resurfaced with the help of a walking stick after a prolonged, unexplained absence that fuelled rampant speculation about his health and even rumours of a coup in the nuclear-armed state.

State media reported early yesterday local time that Kim Jong-un visited a newly built residential district and the Natural Energy Institute of the State Academy of Sciences.

It was Kim's first public appearance since 3 September, when he attended a concert with his wife. The report did not say on which day the visits took place.

Kim's prolonged absence from public view had sparked intense debate about the state of his health and of his grip on power in what remains one of the world's poorest and most isolated countries. Kim, 31, missed a key political anniversary last Friday, as well as a recent session of the country's parliament.

Kim, who became leader in December 2011 after his father died of a heart attack, is known to have a fondness for fattening foods such as cheese, prompting some observers to wonder whether he was suffering from gout.

North Korean diplomats in New York and Seoul condemned the speculation as an attempt to destabilise the regime.

John Delury, a North Korea analyst at Yonsei University in Seoul, said last week there was evidence that Kim was in poor health, which the ruling party did not want to reveal to protect the leader's image. “When the leader is somehow physically incapacitated, they can't show him off as they like to,” he said.

If a coup had taken place, there would have been other signs betraying such a significant event in the secretive state, according to Delury.