North Korean state media on Wednesday made no mention of new appearances by leader Kim Jong Un, a day after intense international speculation over his health was sparked by media reports he was gravely ill after a cardiovascular procedure.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is "alive and well", a top security adviser to the South's President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in 20 days as he celebrated the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, state media said Saturday, ending an absence that had triggered global rumors that he may be seriously ill. 

South Korea's assessment is that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not have surgery, local news outlet Yonhap said, citing an unidentified senior official at presidential Blue House. 

Seoul: The US is looking into intelligence that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is "in grave danger after a surgery", a media report said on Tuesday.

The Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency quoted a CNN report which cited an unidentified "US official with direct knowledge" as saying, but offered no further details.

The report came after a South Korean internet news outlet reported that Kim has been receiving medical treatment at a villa in the resort county of Hyangsan, outside of Pyongyang, following a cardiovascular procedure.

Speculation has increased about what happened to Kim since he apparently skipped an annual visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on the occasion of the 108th birthday of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il-sung on April 15.

Kim was last seen on April 11 in state media reports presiding over a political bureau meeting of the ruling Workers' Party, calling for "strict national countermeasures to thoroughly check the infiltration of the virus".

Kim took over as leader after his father and late leader Kim Jong-il died in late 2011.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a fertiliser factory completion ceremony, state media reported on Saturday, his first public appearance after 20 days of absence that sparked rumours about his health.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim cut the tape at the ceremony marking the completion of Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory in Sunchon, north of Pyongyang, on Friday. Photos released by KCNA showed Kim, dressed in a dark Mao suit, cutting the red ribbon during the ceremony and talking to accompanying officials with a smile on his face.

"All the participants broke into thunderous cheers of 'hurrah!' extending the greatest glory to the Supreme Leader who has brought about a new change in the development of Juche-based fertilizer industry and has led the grand revolutionary advance for strengthening self-supporting economy to a victory with his outstanding leadership," KCNA said. Juche is the concept of self-reliance.

Kim was also quoted as expressing "satisfaction about the wonderful creation". In a report last week, CNN had said that the US was looking into intelligence that Kim Jong-un was in "grave danger" after surgery.

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The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul issued a statement saying that North Korean troops fired several bullets at a South Korean guard post inside the border zone at 7:41 am today.

According to reports, Kim had earlier sent a personal message to Chinese President Xi Jinping to praise China's success in getting its epidemic outbreak under control.

Succession spotlight on younger sister Kim Yo Jong

The young wife of North Korea's leader has made her first public appearance in two months, bringing to an end what might have been a period of 'home detention' for being too carefree.

North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un supervised test-firings of an unspecified new weapons system today, seen as an attempt to build leverage ahead of negotiations with the United States.

The UN banned luxury goods from entering North Korea to punish the rogue state for its nuclear weapons tests, with luxury watches among the specific items named.

The North Korean leader is reported to have personally overseen the test of the ballistic missiles. North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released photos of the test, Sunday.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham on Monday walked back Donald Trump's claim that Melania Trump and Kim Jong Un 'got to know' on another.

North Korea has been left begging for extra cash from Chinese backers after its missile test sight turned beach resort has been delayed again. The site was originally meant to be finished this April.

North Korean despot Kim Jong Un has blasted his own officials as 'helpless' as he 'urgently convened' a disaster prevention meeting about oncoming Typhoon Lingling.

Siti Aisyah (pictured) gives an interview that proves the truth is stranger than fiction. Remorseful but angry, Siti describes how it feels to have been so ruthlessly exploited.

Stunning photos show Kim Jon-Un sat astride a magnificent white horse and riding amid snow fall in Mount Paektu, a mountain on the border between North Korea and China.

The Mount Kumgang resort was opened in 1998 to encourage cross-border tourism but the arrangement ended in acrimony when a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a soldier there.

Kim Jong-un reportedly isn't happy with the state of the Hotel Haegumgang - formally known as the Four Season Barrier Reef Resort, which used to float off the coast of Queensland.

Kim Jong-un turned up the heat on South Korea on Friday as he visited a newly-built spa in the North, while calling for a meeting with Seoul about tearing down a jointly-built resort, calling it 'shabby'.

Kim Jong Un visited the country's Myohyangsan Medical Appliances Factory just as North Korean official released a statement on tense US relations to secure nuclear negotiation, yesterday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the women's company under Unit 5492 of the Korean People's Army stationed at the country's southwestern coast.

The North Korean leader was photographed at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Samjiyon on Monday, as festivities were held to celebrate the opening of the city.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rode a white horse up sacred mountain Mount Paektu in Ryanggang on his second symbolic visit in less than two months, in photos released on Wednesday.

Pak Jong Chon, chief of staff for the Korean People's Army, said in a statement that Kim Jong Un was 'displeased' with what he called 'undesirable remarks' made by Trump in London.

The North Korean dictator cut the ribbon at the Yangdok County Hot Spring Cultural Recreation Centre in South Pyongan Province. It came as Hwang In-cheol demanded his father be released.

A 'meteor' fell from the sky over the Mariana Islands in Oceania. Viewers say the fireball, which might have been debris from a Long March 5 rocket test in China, was a 'gift' from North Korea or China.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, pictured, has addressed a meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea according to official state media.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has accused the Trump administration of dragging its feet in nuclear negotiations and warned that his country will soon show a new strategic weapon to the world.

North Korea has released an hour-long documentary charting Kim Jong-un's two trips up the country's sacred Mount Paektu last year, apparently in place of an anticipated New Year address by the dictator.

Crowds gathered on the streets and the bridge near Kim Il Sung square amid a heavy police presence in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday morning.

Kim Jong Un has been seen in public for the first time since the death of Qassem Soleimani, following rumours he had gone into hiding after the US drone strike.

Donald Trump asked South Korea's national security adviser to relay a happy birthday message to Kim Jong-un, who is thought to have turned 36 this week, during a meeting in Washington.

The uniformed women play a guitar, drums and accordion for North Korean Kim Jong-un as he watches them singing and dancing from behind a desk.

EXCLUSIVE: Millionaire financier David Rowland held talks with North Korean leaders in the capital Pyongyang about managing the personal fortunes of the rogue state's ruling family.

On Sunday, state media showed Kim Kyong Hui (right) sitting near Kim Jong-Un at a performance celebrating the Lunar New Year in Pyongyang.

Kim Jong-un visited Pyongyang's Palace of the Sun on Saturday as he commemorated father Kim Jong-il's birthday, the first time the dictator has been seen in public since January 25.

Kim Yo Jong, the younger sibling of the North Korean leader, criticised South Korea's presidential Blue House for expressing strong concerns over the North's firing drills.

A source in South Korea has claimed the Supreme Leader fled Pyongyang for Wonsan on the nation's east coast amid growing fears over the virus.

Kim Yo Jong, believed to be in her thirties, was turfed out of the Pyongyang dictator's inner circle when she was blamed for last year's bungled talks with Donald Trump.

Kim Jong Un failed to attend the ceremony at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, despite many of his senior officials appearing at the deeply significant wreath laying ceremony on Wednesday.

The South said there were no 'unusual movements' in North Korea and that Kim was thought to be with his aides near Pyongyang, not recovering at a villa as reports had claimed.

Earlier this year, Karl Stefanovic joked about his recent weight gain after unflattering photos surfaced of him at the beach in Byron Bay.

A power vacuum left by the dictator could explode into an ugly civil war in the North Korea, which would spark 'humanitarian suffering' and a wave of refugees fleeing the violence.

Dennis Rodman said that he hopes the unconfirmed reports that the 36-year-old Supreme Leader was in grave danger after undergoing heart surgery are 'just a rumor'.

President Donald Trump claimed that reports of North Korea's Kim Jong Un being gravely ill was 'fake news' from CNN during Thursday's daily COVID-19 briefing

A new book claims that the leader of North Korea sees himself as John F. Kennedy and his wife Ri Sol Ju as the parallel of Jackie Kennedy.

The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean leader.