North Korea releases new Kim Jong Un photos after unverified death rumours

North Korea’s official media on Tuesday, 20 October, put out a fresh set of pictures of Kim Jong Un walking through a fashion and shoe fair in Pyongyang days after unsupported social media posts alleged that he had suffered a brain bleed and died.

According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the state news service, Kim toured the National Clothing and Footwear Exhibition 2026 in the capital on Monday, 19 October. His wife Ri Sol Ju and his teenage daughter Kim Ju Ae went with him, the agency said. Seoul Economic Daily said the images show Kim inspecting a small pink child’s shoe and feeling the sleeve of a woman’s coat.

The pictures cannot be independently checked. No foreign or independent reporters attended the event, and both The Week and Open magazine pointed out that the photographs say nothing reliable about his medical condition. Seoul Economic Daily added that the date on which the images were shot has not been confirmed by anyone outside North Korea, and that Pyongyang has not responded directly to the death claims.

Where the rumour came from

The claim has been traced to Xie Wanjun (also reported as Wanjun Xie), a China-born dissident living in the United States who says he leads the China Democracy Party. In posts on X, which Seoul Economic Daily dated to Sunday, 18 October, he alleged that doctors from Beijing’s Peking Union Medical College Hospital had been flown to Pyongyang to treat Kim after a severe haemorrhage left him in a coma, that Kim was then moved to Beijing and died there, and that his body was quietly flown home. He also asserted that China had sent 9,000 soldiers into Pyongyang to guard against a power struggle.

None of these assertions came with medical records, witnesses or any other supporting material. British tabloid The Sun, the Daily Express and the New York Post carried the allegations, which then spread to outlets in India, Ukraine and Turkey; the New York Post itself said there was no verified evidence.

A related strand of speculation held that Kim’s younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, had quietly taken charge. That too is unverified. Open magazine noted that a recent statement in her name, warning South Korea about loudspeaker broadcasts and stronger tactical strike forces, was reported by Reuters on 19 October but does not show any shift in power. Kim Ju Ae has never been formally named as heir.

What Seoul has said

South Korean diplomatic and security officials told Seoul Economic Daily that they had not heard of any such development and called the reports absurd. Analyst Benedict Rogers was quoted by The Sun, as cited by the same paper, saying that past leadership deaths in the North were followed by mass public mourning and emotional state broadcasts, and that nothing of the kind has been seen this time.

Questions about Kim’s health are not new. On 30 September, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers that he weighs about 140 kg and faces a raised risk of heart disease linked to obesity, but the agency also said it saw no clear signs of illness, citing footage of him running up stairs aboard a naval destroyer. Before Monday, his last reported outing was on 11 October, when state media showed him at a defence-related museum.

Similar stories have collapsed before. In 2020, Ji Seong Ho, a defector then serving as a South Korean lawmaker, said he was all but certain Kim had died; Kim reappeared and Ji later apologised.

Sources: The Week, Open magazine, Seoul Economic Daily