North Korea has been using a flurry of recent media dispatches to show its people that Kim Jong-il is firmly in control after reports their leader suffered a stroke, a South Korean official said on Friday.
U.S. and South Korean officials have said Kim, 66, suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about leadership in Asia's only communist dynasty and who was making decisions about the North's nuclear program, reported Reuters.
On Thursday, a French doctor who is thought to have treated the reclusive leader was quoted in French newspaper Le Figaro as saying Kim had suffered a stroke but did not undergo an operation and is now better.
North Korea's recent reports of Kim's public appearances show he is traveling with a larger entourage and meeting more people. This week he also released what is considered to be a rare dated and signed document, a Unification Ministry spokesman said.
"It could mean that there are more people who actually saw Kim Jong-il," spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said at a news briefing.
Analysts said that many North Koreans had heard about Kim's suspected illness, even though North Korea is one of the world's most closed countries and avoids any comment that would indicate its "Dear Leader" has been debilitated.
On Friday, North Korea released undated pictures of one of Kim's most recent outings, which took him to a folk village and a chicken farm. He wore a winter coat and sunglasses as he posed for pictures with numerous local officials.
An analyst said North Korea was sending a message to its citizens and the outside world that Kim is in charge.
"North Korea seems to be trying to show that Kim Jong-il is well capable of handling state affairs and there is no internal conflict," said Koh Yu-hwan, a Dongguk University professor of North Korea studies and an expert on the North's state ideology.
Some analysts note that, even though the North has released numerous undated photographs of Kim after his reported illness, there has been no definitive and timely image that shows him in good health.
But French neurosurgeon Francois-Xavier Roux said in Le Figaro: "The photos that have just been published seem recent and authentic to me. I can't say more because of medical confidentiality and state secrecy."
Kim's illness also may have influenced recent international talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program. The six-party talks finished in Beijing on Thursday with no progress made.
Peter Beck, an expert on Korean affairs with the American University in Washington, said Pyongyang's already reclusive leaders may be drawing further into their shells because of Kim's suspected illness.
"They are rethinking just how much they want to be re-engaged with the world," Beck said.
