The 31-year-old's walk was somewhere between a limp and a waddle. The speculation was feverish: Kim Jong-un was ill, he was addicted to Swiss cheese, he had gout, he had disappeared – was he still alive?
The question still remains – Kim has not been seen in public for a month – but yesterday, among the many sober suits at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, appeared a Vice Marshal of the Korean People's Army, the North's second most powerful person. Wearing an olive uniform, Hwang Pyong-so had arrived.
In a flurry of diplomacy from the normally undiplomatic Pyonyang, Hwang's delegation also included another senior aide to Kim, Choe Ryong-hae, and Kim Yang-gon, a senior official of the ruling Workers' Party and a long-time veteran of dealings with the South.
