Kim Jong Un reappears in state media photos after death rumours
North Korean state media have shown Kim Jong Un touring a clothing and footwear exhibition in Pyongyang on 19 October, accompanied by his daughter and his wife, after unverified claims spread online that he had died of a brain haemorrhage in Beijing. None of those claims was ever confirmed.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has appeared in new state media photographs, days after rumours that he had died spread across social media. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on 20 October that Kim visited the 2026 national clothing and footwear exhibition in Pyongyang on 19 October, accompanied by his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, and his wife, Ri Sol-ju. According to KCNA, the exhibition features more than 70,700 items of clothing and over 170,000 pairs of shoes. The photographs were carried by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
The rumours began on 18 and 19 October with posts on X by Xie Wanjun, a Chinese dissident based in the United States who presents himself as the leader of the Chinese Democracy Party. Without offering any evidence, he claimed that Kim had suffered a severe cerebral haemorrhage, fallen into a coma, been taken to Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing and died there, and that his body had been secretly returned to North Korea. He also alleged that China had sent 9,000 soldiers to Pyongyang. None of these claims has been confirmed by any government or independent source.
The claims were amplified by the British tabloid The Sun and by the New York Post, and were then picked up by other outlets. Speculation about Kim's health is not new: similar rumours circulated in 2020 before he reappeared in public. On 30 September, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Kim weighs about 140 kg and faces an elevated cardiovascular risk. Source: KCNA via Yonhap (with Chosun Biz, Firstpost)