A picture of health, but just how recent are Kim pictures?

PHOTOGRAPHS released by North Korea which appear to show Kim Jong-il making a recent public appearance could be months old, sparking fresh speculation that the communist state's leader has suffered a stroke.

A series of still pictures was broadcast by North Korean state television on Saturday, portraying a seemingly healthy Kim inspecting a women's military unit.

They are the first supposedly new images of the leader for two months, a period during which he failed to attend some major state events, such as a mass military parade in the capital, Pyongyang, to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the communist state.

Both South Korea and US intelligence officials have said they believe the 66-year-old suffered a stroke and had brain surgery, but North Korea has denied that Kim is ill.

Yesterday, reports suggested that the pictures might date from before Kim's apparent health scare, and analysts have suggested the photographs are intended to show that Kim remains in control of the country, whatever his state of health.

Sporting his trademark dark glasses and khaki jumpsuit, Kim was shown viewing troops in training, clapping and talking while looking around their barracks.

In the background there was plenty of verdant greenery, more reminiscent of summer than mid-autumn.

Hong Hyun-ik, a North Korea analyst at the security think tank Sejong Institute, said he believed the pictures must have been taken much earlier, because they were "too green" in the background and Kim appeared "too healthy".

Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of international relations at Tokyo's Waseda University, said: "One of the rumours is that he is very seriously ill; another is that he is already dead.

"I believe those reports have credence, because if Kim was well enough to appear on Friday, he would have done."