North Korea releases new pictures of leader Kim Jong-Un days after reports claimed he was in coma

Days after a South Korean diplomat claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was in a coma, the communist nation has issued new photos of the reclusive leader.

State-controlled Korean Central News Agency published the new photographs of Kim. In the pictures, the North Korean leader can be seen attending a meeting of the politburo of the Workers Party. According to KCNA, during the meeting, Kim called for prevention efforts against the coronavirus and a typhoon. 

Notably, the photographs released by KCNA cannot be verified for their date.

On Sunday (August 23), Chang Song-min, a former aide to South Korea’s late president Kim Dae-Jung, had claimed that Kim is in a coma and his sister Kim Yo-jong is running the government in North Korea.

“I assess him to be in a coma, but his life has not ended. A complete succession structure has not been formed, so Kim Yo-jong is being brought to the fore as the vacuum cannot be maintained for a prolonged period,” Chang said in an interview according to a report by South Korean media. 

Chang asserted that Kim is bedridden and unable to rule. He claimed to have gotten the information from a source in China. Chang also said thta photos of Kim released by the North Korean media in recent months were fake. 

Earlier, South Korea`s intelligence agency had claimed that Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is serving as his "de facto second-in-command" but has not necessarily been designated his successor.

Ha Tae-keung, an opposition party lawmaker on parliament`s intelligence committee, told reporters that Kim was helping to run the regime with mandated authority from her brother.

"The bottom line is that Kim Jong-un still holds absolute power, but has turned over a bit more of his authority compared to the past," Ha said, following a closed-door briefing by the South`s National Intelligence Service, Reuters reported on Thursday.