North Korea's Kim Jong Un has packed on the pounds, appearing more rotund than ever in the newest photos of him – raising questions about his health and chances that there might be a move to oust him should he fall ill.
In the photos released Monday by the Korea Central News Agency, the chunky Kim is wearing a panama hat and standing with his jacket undone at Farm No. 1116 outside Pyongyang,
the Telegraph reports.
The 32-year-old leader has swelled up since inheriting North Korea after his father, Kim Jong Il – who had high blood pressure and diabetes – died suddenly in December 2011, the Telegraph reports.
The younger Kim has had ills of his own that've taken him out of the public eye, including an absence as recently as
last September.
The Telegraph reported at the time that Kim had gotten so fat that
his ankles had fractured.
If Kim seems once again to be ailing, an opposition faction might consider an uprising, the Telegraph reports.
"We know that his health is not so good and, in the future, if he is taken seriously ill then there is the possibility of instability or even a coup by elements of the military," Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and an authority on North Korean affairs, told The Telegraph.
"And because the Kim family bloodline is so important in North Korean society, they may very well look to Kim's older brother, Kim Jong Nam, to be a figurehead for the new regime."
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