North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches missile drill
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea released new photos of Kim Jong Un touring a clothing and footwear exhibition in Pyongyang this week. The images pushed back against a viral online rumor that the 42-year-old leader had suffered a brain hemorrhage, fallen into a coma or died.

The Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday that Kim visited the National Garment and Footwear Exhibition-2026 on Monday with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, and daughter, Kim Ju Ae. One state media photo showed Kim bending forward to look at a small pink child's shoe held up by an exhibition worker.

According to the state media report, Kim praised the exhibition as evidence of progress in the country's light industry and said the sector was helping improve people's lives. The photos cannot be independently verified, and they do not amount to an outside assessment of his health. Still, they were his most recent reported public activity after an Oct. 11 visit to a new national defense museum.

How the rumor spread

The claims appear to have begun circulating on the social media platform X between Sunday and Monday. According to NK News, a Seoul-based outlet that monitors North Korea, at least two popular accounts critical of the Chinese Communist Party said without evidence that Kim had died or fallen into a coma and been rushed to a hospital in Beijing. South Korean broadcaster SBS traced the rumor to a Chinese dissident living in the United States.

The posts included specific but unsupported details. They said medical specialists from Peking Union Medical College Hospital had treated Kim. They also offered shifting accounts of who would take power. One version said Chinese troops were backing his daughter, Kim Ju Ae. A later version said his sister, Kim Yo Jong, had taken control.

Britain's The Sun and the New York Post were among the outlets that picked up the claims, which were then repeated by media in several other countries. NK News said its analysis suggested automated accounts may have helped spread them. Fact-checkers found no credible evidence that Kim had died, and they said a memorial image marked "1984–2026" that circulated with the rumor appeared to be fabricated.

In a panel discussion on South Korea's TV Chosun, analysts said the rumor gained traction because it offered detailed scenarios about specific hospitals and succession plans. Those details made it seem believable even though no part of it was confirmed.

A familiar pattern

This is not the first time Kim's health has been the subject of unverified reports. In April 2020, he missed celebrations marking the birthday of his grandfather, state founder Kim Il Sung. That absence set off worldwide speculation that he was gravely ill or dead. He reappeared about three weeks later at the opening of a fertilizer factory. Later that year, a former South Korean presidential aide claimed Kim was in a coma, a claim that also proved unfounded.

Analysts say these rumors keep coming back partly because Kim has well-known health risk factors and because North Korea discloses almost nothing about its leader's condition. South Korean intelligence has estimated his weight at about 140 kilograms (309 pounds). He has often been photographed smoking. His father, Kim Jong Il, and his grandfather both died of heart-related illnesses.

Border threats escalate

The photos were released as tensions rose sharply along the inter-Korean border.

On Monday, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media that North Korea was considering deploying more weapons near the border and restarting loudspeaker broadcasts aimed at the South.

"To cope with the prevailing situation, our military leadership is examining the issues of deploying more tactical strike means along the southern border as a pre-emptive and suppressive measure to deal with contingency, and of resuming loudspeaker broadcasting against the ROK, and considering other necessary and appropriate measures," she said.

She said South Korea had issued 2,870 rounds of loudspeaker warnings and fired 201 warning shots between Aug. 1 and Oct. 17. Seoul has not released its own figures.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said its troops had continued warning broadcasts when necessary. The ministry said those warnings come from smaller speakers at guard posts, not from the large propaganda loudspeaker systems that President Lee Jae Myung ordered switched off on June 11, 2025. Under the military's rules of engagement, troops broadcast warnings when North Korean soldiers approach the Military Demarcation Line and fire warning shots if they cross it.

"If North Korea uses our legitimate measures as a pretext to carry out further provocations, we will punish it resolutely," the Defense Ministry said.

South Korea's military says North Korea has sent as many as 7,000 workers this year to lay mines and build fences along the border, and that there have been about 50 border crossings. Relations worsened further after a Sept. 21 explosion in the Demilitarized Zone injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously. Seoul has blamed North Korean mines for the blast and demanded an apology. Kim Yo Jong rejected that accusation as "groundless."

Dispute in Seoul over nuclear remark

The developments have also fueled a political fight in South Korea over how Lee's government is handling Pyongyang.

On Monday, Lee questioned whether North Korea would actually use nuclear weapons in combat. He described the arsenal as a "last-resort defensive weapon." He also argued that South Korea's conventional military is among the strongest in the world and is enough to defend the country on its own.

The conservative opposition People Power Party attacked the remark. Chief spokesperson Park Chung-kwon said it was inappropriate for a commander in chief and asked, "If North Korea's nuclear weapons are a 'defensive weapon,' does that mean the people of South Korea are 'objects to be neglected'?" Opposition lawmakers noted that North Korea has written the option of a preemptive nuclear strike into law, and they called on Lee to apologize. Lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo said on Facebook that the description reflected a dangerous detachment from reality.

Panelists on TV Chosun also criticized the government's approach and argued that Seoul needs a firm, principled response to the North's provocations.

Lee's government has defended its effort to ease military tensions. Since taking office, it has called for renewed talks between the United States and North Korea. At the U.N. General Assembly last month, Lee said sanctions could be eased if Pyongyang froze its nuclear program. North Korea has not responded to Seoul's offers of dialogue since it declared South Korea a hostile state in 2023.

For now, Pyongyang has said only that additional weapons and renewed broadcasts are under consideration. It has not announced any deployment. Analysts warn that any resumption of the loudspeaker campaigns could set off a new round of retaliation along one of the world's most heavily armed borders.