WASHINGTON (AFP) - Photographs released by Pyongyang over the weekend showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in seeming good health appear not to have been taken recently, a US defense official said Tuesday.
The photographs aired on Saturday by North Korean state television were the first of Kim, 66, since he disappeared from public view August 14 after reportedly suffering a stroke. They showed him inspecting a women's artillery base, wearing sunglasses and looking as he has in the past with chubby cheeks and boufant hair.
But the US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pentagon analysts concurred with South Korean reports that the dark green foliage in the background suggest the photographs were taken in July or August, not in autumn.
Moreover, it was not clear what year the photographs were taken. "The biggest key is the vegetation," the official said, adding that "we see nothing that would dispute what the South Koreans are saying." The official declined to comment whether anything in Kim's physical appearance in the photographs indicated that the photograph was old or inconsistent with the intelligence about his health.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Sunday said South Korean intelligence officials said they believed that the photographs were taken before Kim suffered a stroke in mid-August. An unidentifed government source told Yonhap the 10 still photographs were apparently released to show Kim's regime is "in good shape" both at home and abroad.