South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) assessed that rumors of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s death were false, attendees said, as state media released images of him at a Pyongyang exhibition.
The Korea Herald relayed a Yonhap News Agency report based on accounts from people who attended a closed session of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee. The attendees said the NIS gave its assessment at the meeting.
KCNA’s Tuesday report said Kim visited the National Garment and Footwear Exhibition-2026 in Pyongyang on Oct. 19. Photos published with the report showed him touring the venue with his daughter. The state account did not address the death speculation. EconoTimes previously covered photos from the exhibition.
At a committee briefing late last month, the NIS said Kim weighed more than 140 kilograms and that severe obesity put him at elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. The agency said it had seen no clear indications of health problems. It pointed to his mobility, including climbing stairs during a destroyer inspection, and to the medical staff monitoring him.
The Korea Herald said posts on overseas social media earlier in the week speculated that Kim had suffered a brain hemorrhage, fallen into a coma and died. Several foreign media outlets repeated the claims, the newspaper reported, but it said no evidence had been provided to support them.
Death rumors about Kim have surfaced repeatedly. The Korea Herald linked their recurrence to limited public information about North Korea’s leadership and traced similar episodes to 1986, 2008, 2014, 2020 and 2025. In 2020, two South Korean lawmakers publicly questioned whether Kim was dead or incapacitated before he reappeared, the newspaper reported. It also said North Korea took more than a day to announce the deaths of Kim Il-sung in 1994 and Kim Jong-il in 2011.
The committee is due to scrutinize the NIS at a parliamentary audit Thursday. The Korea Herald said North Korea and broader security matters are expected to be on the agenda.
