‘Recent’ Jong-il pictures could be months old

PICTURES of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il issued by the communist state may be several months old and possibly taken before his reported illness, South Korean media have said, raising more questions about his health.

North Korea’s state TV broadcast pictures of Kim on Saturday inspecting a women’s military unit, as the reclusive country stepped up a campaign to show its “Dear Leader” was healthy after US and South Korean intelligence officials said he may have suffered a stroke in August.

The photographs of Kim, looking generally healthy as he talked outdoors with women soldiers, were the first in nearly two months.

But the surrounding greenery suggested the pictures may be from before his last public appearance in the middle of summer, when trees would have begun changing colour, local media quoted government sources and experts as saying.

“There is little chance they were taken in October,” the JoongAng Ilbo daily quoted Lee Eun-joo, a horticulture specialist at Seoul National University, as saying.

Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified intelligence source as saying: “Having analysed the look of Kim Jong-il in the picture, it is impossible to know when the pictures were taken, but looking from the environment, it is likely it was July or August.”

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which manages bilateral relations with the North, declined to comment on when the pictures may have been taken.

Another government official said the pictures “fall short of being a decisive basis to confirm” that Kim was currently in good health, but added it was difficult on the other hand to say conclusively that they were not taken recently.

Kim’s health and his whereabouts are among the north’s most tightly guarded secrets.

State media typically does not indicate the timing of his public appearances.

Medical professionals who were shown Kim’s pictures said there was little to indicate he was suffering from lingering stroke symptoms, South Korean media said.

In September, Kim did not show up at a military parade on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the communist state, raising questions about the leadership of the country.

South Korean intelligence sources said they believed Kim was recovering and that he had not lost grip on power.