North Korean leader Kim Jong-un limped onto the stage on the anniversary of his grandfather’s death, footage broadcast by state media on Tuesday showed, in a rare display of weakness in a country where leaders are portrayed as semi-divine.
The footage showed Kim limping quickly to the center of a large stage in front of a vast smiling portrait of his grandfather, North Korean founding president Kim Il-sung, who died 20 years ago.
State media and propaganda are highly choreographed by the isolated country and any defects with its leadership are usually kept a tightly guarded secret.
Kim Il-sung, who ruled until his death in 1994, had an inoperable, tennis-ball-size growth on the back of his neck — which meant state media were forbidden from filming him from certain angles.
It was not immediately clear how Kim Jong-un developed the limp. State media have shown the 30-year-old leader conducting extensive military guidance visits on the east and west coasts in recent weeks.
North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
North Korea, which has threatened a fourth nuclear test in violation of UN sanctions, has test-fired short-range missiles and rockets three times in the past 10 days and threatened to continue doing so.