Photos of North Korean leader add to uncertainty

Photos of North Korean leader add to uncertainty

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- The first photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il released in two months show him in a setting very similar to photographs from August.

And the verdant background looks more like summer than autumn, adding to uncertainty about Kim's health after reports he underwent brain surgery.

North Korea released the undated still photos and video frame grabs Saturday accompanying a report by North Korean television that Kim visited a military unit. They were the first photos of Kim published since Aug. 14; and in both sets of pictures he wears his trademark dark sunglasses and a khaki jumpsuit.

"They didn't appear to have been taken recently," Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University, said Monday of the pictures carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. "To me, it looked like they were taken in June or July."

The 66-year-old communist leader disappeared from public view in mid-August and failed to make appearances on two national holidays - leading to speculation he was seriously ill. American and South Korean officials said he suffered a stroke and had brain surgery; North Korea has denied he is ailing.South Korean officials declined to comment on the photos.

"We're keeping a close watch on Chairman Kim Jong Il's activity," said Kim Ho-nyeon of the Unification Ministry in charge of monitoring the North.

Hong Hyun-ik, a North Korea analyst at the security think tank Sejong Institute, said he also believes the latest pictures must have been taken earlier, because they were "too green" in the background and Kim appeared "too healthy."

Still, the North's release of the pictures should not be taken as evidence that Kim's health has deteriorated, he said.

"Kim Jong Il cannot appear in public unless he is in perfect shape," the analyst said. "I think North Korea released the pictures to show its people that their supreme leader is up and going, as the regime prepares to use its removal from the U.S. terrorism list as propaganda for the leader."

Kim, the Dongguk University professor, said the images appeared to be intended not only for the North Korean people, but for U.S. audiences.

"Would the United States have removed North Korea from the terrorism list if Kim Jong Il's health is serious?" he asked rhetorically. "I think the North must have felt the need to put an end to speculation about his health ahead of its removal from the terror list."

The analyst said he believes Kim is on the road to recovery and is likely to make an appearance in the near future in a way that would leave no question about his health, such as meetings with foreign diplomats.