North Korea admits leader’s poor health

SECRETIVE communist state North Korea has admitted that their supreme leader is currently suffering a period of ill-health.

Kim Jong-un, aged 31, has not been seen in public since appearing at a music concert with his wife on September 3, prompting rumours that he is ill.

The leader’s extended period of absence from public view has finally been recognised by a state media documentary broadcast on Thursday September 25, which has said that Kim is experiencing some ‘discomfort.’

This is the first official recognition that the young dictator may be feeling under the weather.

Speaking to The Guardian, Michael Madden, an expert on North Korea, said: “Based on his gait, it appears he has gout: something [due to] diet and genetic predisposition that has affected other members of the Kim family.”

Frequently in the public eye, Kim Jong-un often takes centre-stage in state propaganda videos. Many have noticed that he has been walking with a limp since July.

In a state media broadcast on Thursday, a narrator said of Kim: “The wealth and prosperity of our socialism is thanks to the painstaking efforts of our marshal, who keeps lighting the path for the people, like the flicker of a flame, despite suffering discomfort.”

With his father dying from a heart attack in 2011, and Kim Jong-un seen to have gained a lot of weight since his installation as leader, there is speculation that weight-related health problems may run in the family.

Gout, the disease which Kim Jong-un may be suffering from, is a specific form of arthritis that affects more men than woman.

Historically it has been related to weight gain through good eating and drinking and has often been referred to as a royal disease. England’s King Henry VIII was perhaps the world’s most famous sufferer of gout.