- After the footage of Kim Jong-un’s apparent weight loss was broadcast, North Korean residents were heartbroken.
- The 37-year-old leader seems to have lost weight significantly.
- No details on weight loss were provided.
North Korean state media quoted an unidentified Pyongyang resident after watching Kim Jong-un’s recent video as saying that everyone in North Korea was heartbroken by Kim Jong-un’s apparent weight loss.
After foreign analysts pointed out in early June that the 37-year-old authoritarian leader was believed to have lost weight significantly, he made rare public comments on Kim Jong Un’s health.
“Seeing the respected general secretary (Kim Jong Un) looked haggard and broke the hearts of our people,” the man said in an interview broadcast by the state broadcaster KRT on Friday.
“Everyone said their tears welled up,” he said.
In a clip that Reuters could not independently verify, residents of Pyongyang were seen watching a big screen on the street, showing a concert that Kim Jong Il and party officials attended after a plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).
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The broadcast did not provide any details that led to the weight loss.
When Kim Jong-un reappeared in the state media in June after not appearing in public for nearly a month, an analyst at Seoul-based NK News, a website that monitors North Korea, pointed out that his watch appeared to be fastened to a significantly tighter time than before. On a thin watch. Wrist.
Given the tight control of Kim Jong Il’s power over North Korea—and the uncertainty of any successor plans—international media, spy agencies, and experts pay close attention to his health.
At the beginning of last year, after Kim Jong-un missed the birthday anniversary of the country’s founder Kim Il-sung on April 15, speculation about Kim Jong-un’s health broke out, and it reappeared in the public in early May.
In 2014, state media reported that Kim Jong-un felt “discomfort” after leaving the public eye for a long time.