Kim reappears in public and opens a fertilizer center

2020-05-02T04:44:26.209Z

Smiling, Kim Jong-un returned to the public for the first time in three weeks, with no apparent signs of illness, despite speculation about his health that went so far as to indicate his death. The 21 photos released by Kcna, the official news agency of North Korea, and by Rodong Sinmun, the Workers' Party newspaper, showed the leader with his Mao-style dress, committed on May 1 to give instructions on the field and to participate in the cutting of the inaugural red ribbon of a phosphate fertilizer factory in Sunchon, a city about 50 kilometers north of Pyongyang, finished after two years of work. Kim's reappearance marked the difficulty in understanding the internal affairs of the hermit state, starting from the fate of the leadership, considering that Kim's last appearance was on April 11, at the head of the Workers' Party Politburo. The photos, among other things, showed him while talking to factory officials and, always smiling, inspects the plant, dropping the rumors that made him unable to walk. With him a series of top officials: his sister Kim Yo-jong, and then Pak Pong-ju, vice president of the Central Party Committee and Prime Minister Kim Jae-ryong. Absent number two of the nomenclature, Choe Ryong-hae. Kim and officials do not wear coronavirus protection masks, unlike what was done by all plant workers lined up in front of the authorities' stage.