[Yonhap News Photo]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a well-known heavy smoker, frequently seen with a cigarette in hand in photographs and TV footages carried by state media since he took power in late 2011.
Like his late father, Kim Jong-il, the 33-year-old often showed an uppity attitude, smoking as he liked, in front of top officials at official functions and during his trademark "field guidance" inspection of factories and army camps.
But Kim Jong-un has not been pictured with a cigarette since he visited the site for an alleged simulation of ballistic rocket re-entry technology in March, sparking speculation that he may have abandoned his nasty habit.
His father was seen puffing on a cigarette in 2009, a year after he suffered a stroke. The elder Kim died in December 2011 of a heart attack.
The lack of pictures and images showing Kim Jong-un without a cigarette or an ashtray at hand in the past two months has sparked rumours and a guessing game among North Korea waters in the outside world.
Some analysts speculated that Kim may have given up smoking, citing a recent anti-smoking TV program putting up women who strongly criticized male smokers.
But Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, was doubtful, saying smoking has been Kim's "not discardable" habit, dating back to his boyhood days. There have been unconfirmed reports that the leader began smoking when he was 15 years old.
"For Kim, smoking is probably not discardable, and I believe he has not been seen smoking for a while because he must furnish an example during a national anti-smoking campaign," Yang told Aju News.
Despite a regular anti-smoking campaign staged by Pyongyang, its smoking rate is still high, he said. Almost half of North Korean adults smoke, the highest rate in Asia. Smoking is relatively free in the isolated country, defectors said, adding cigarette packs have been one of the most favoured items for bribery.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
