The wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared in public for the first time in more than a year on Wednesday, at a concert to mark one of the country’s biggest holidays.
Ri Sol Ju and her husband were featured in photographs published by state media, smiling side by side at the Mansudae Art Theater in the capital of Pyongyang.
The event commemorates the birthday of Kim’s late father and former leader Kim Jong Il.
While the Hermit Kingdom’s first lady Kim, 36, often accompanied major public events, she has been out of the spotlight since January last year, attending an event for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Her absence from the public eye sparked speculation about her health and rumors that she may be pregnant.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told lawmakers on Tuesday that Ri appeared to have refrained from outside events to ward off the coronavirus.
Ri, who is believed to be in her mid-30s, spends her time “playing well” with the couple’s three children, according to NOS.
No one on the couple’s new images – released by official ruling Worker’s Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun – wore masks or enforced social distance measures.
The newspaper also reported that Kim visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the embalmed bodies of his father and grandfather are housed, to lay wreaths for the holiday called the Day of the Shining Star.
With pole wires