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SEOUL, South Korea -- After vanishing from the public eye
for nearly six weeks, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is back, ending
rumors that he was gravely ill, deposed or worse.
Now, a new, albeit smaller, mystery has emerged: Why the cane?
Kim,
who was last seen publicly at a Sept. 3 concert, appeared in images
released by state media Tuesday smiling broadly and supporting himself
with a walking stick while touring the newly built Wisong Scientists
Residential District and another new institute in Pyongyang, part of his
regular "field guidance" tours. The North didn't say when the visit
happened, nor did it address the leader's health.
Kim's
appearance allowed the country's massive propaganda apparatus to
continue doing what it does best - glorify the third generation of Kim
family rule. And it will tamp down, at least for the moment, rampant
rumors of a coup and serious health problems.
Before
Tuesday, Kim missed several high-profile events that he normally
attends and was described in an official documentary last month as
experiencing "discomfort."
Archive footage
from August showed him overweight and limping, prompting the South
Korean media to speculate he had undergone surgery on his ankles. Some
experts thought he was suffering from gout or diabetes.
In
Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. didn't
have any reason to doubt the authenticity of the latest images,
although she added that because of the opacity of the North Korean
regime, there's always a question about the reliability of publicly
available information.
A South Korean analyst
said Kim probably broke his media silence to dispel outside speculation
that he wasn't in control and to win sympathy from a domestic audience
by creating the image of a leader who works through pain.
The
appearance may be a form of "emotional politics meant to appeal to the
North Korean people's sympathy," said Cheong Seong-chang, at the private
Sejong Institute in South Korea.
It was the
first time a North Korean leader allowed himself to be seen relying on a
cane or crutch, South Korean officials said. Kim's father, Kim Jong Il,
who reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008 before dying of a heart attack
in late 2011, was seen limping but never with a walking stick, nor was
the country's founder and Kim Jong Un's grandfather, Kim Il Sung, said
Lim Byeong Cheol, a spokesman from Seoul's Unification Ministry.
Cheong
said Kim appeared in the recently released images to have lost about 10
kilograms (22 pounds) compared to pictures from May. He speculated that
since Kim was holding a cane on his left side he may have had surgery
on his left ankle.
Kim "appears to want to
show people that he's doing fine, though he's indeed still having some
discomfort. If he hadn't done so, excessive speculation would have
continued to flare up and anxiety among North Korean residents would
have grown and calls by outsiders for contingency plans on dealing with
North Korea would have gotten momentum," Cheong said.
The South Korean government has all along seen no signals of any major problems.
In
deciding to resume his public activity before fully recovering from his
condition, Kim was looking to quickly quell rumors that his health
problems were serious enough to threaten his status as North Korean
leader, said Lim, the government spokesman.
"The cane aside, he looked to be in good health," Lim said.
The
recent absence was, in part, "probably an attention-getting device -
and it certainly works," Bruce Cumings, an expert on Korea at the
University of Chicago, said in an email.
"The
North has been on a diplomatic offensive in Europe and elsewhere, it
feels isolated - and is, if we're talking about relations with
Washington," he wrote. "All this puts them back on the front page."
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