Mystery Over N. Korean Leader Fuels Health Rumors

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea's authoritarian leader makes no public appearances for three weeks, skipping a high-profile event he usually attends. Because of this, there's powerful curiosity about what would happen should Kim Jong Un be incapacitated. For more than three weeks, he hasn't been seen performing his customary public duties in state media coverage, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry, which monitors the North. The recent images of Kim limping and the documentary are "an attempt to quell rumors within the North Korean public and show confidence that Kim's health problems are trivial," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul. In 2012, North Korea purged its army chief, which also caused wild speculation in Seoul, including a report from a South Korean newspaper, citing "unconfirmed intelligence reports," that Ri Yong Ho may have been wounded or killed in a blaze of gunfire when soldiers loyal to him resisted an armed attempt to detain him. Whatever's going on, avid North Korea watchers will get another chance for a carefully staged look on Oct.

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