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South Korea Says Kim Jong Un Did Not Have Surgery During Absence

Amid speculation about his three-week absence from public life, South Korea said Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not undergo surgery or another medical procedure over that period. “Our assessment is that (Kim) did not undergo surgery,” a South Korean official told reporters. North Korean state media released footage of Kim, 36, …

Amid speculation about his three-week absence from public life, South Korea said Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not undergo surgery or another medical procedure over that period.

“Our assessment is that (Kim) did not undergo surgery,” a South Korean official told reporters.

North Korean state media released footage of Kim, 36, walking and talking normally at the opening ceremony for a fertilizer factory, quelling theories that the authoritarian leader could be seriously ill or even dead. However, speculation continued about Kim’s leg movements, which at some points appeared stiff.

The country has yet to explain Kim’s absence, however, including at North Korea’s biggest holiday celebration on April 15, the Day of the Sun, which is the birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-Sung.

North and South Korea exchanged gunfire on Sunday on their border, the Demilitarized Zone, just a day after the footage of Kim was released, his first known public appearance since April 11.

President Trump, who held the first ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader, expressed his good wishes to Kim after the latter reappeared.

“I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!” Trump wrote in a Saturday tweet.

Negotiations between the Trump administration and Pyongyang over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, however, have been stalled for months.

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