Donald Trump has said he knows how North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un is but can't talk about it, adding: "I hope he's fine."
The US president was speaking at the latest daily White House press briefing on Monday, in response to unverified reports Kim is severely ill or dead.
Asked about a reported statement from the North Korean leader released over the weekend, Trump expressed doubts.
"Nobody knows where he is so he obviously couldn't have said it, this is breaking news that Kim Jong Un made a statement on Saturday, I don't think so," he told a reporter.
It comes after a reportedly fake picture purportedly showing the leader of North Korea lying dead in a coffin was being shared online amidst feverish rumours of his demise.
In the picture - which appears to be doctored - Kim can be seen facing upwards with his head laid back on a pillow.
Speculation erupted about Kim's health after he missed an annual birthday celebration for his late grandfather - Kim Il-sung, the country's founder - on April 15.
Some officials or sources claim the dictator is dead, others say he is in a vegetative state or coma, but over the weekend it was said that he is "alive and well".
Lee Jeong Ho, a former official of Room 39, an organisation run by the Workers' Party of North Korea, told news group Dong-A Ilbo Kim may have been hurt during a recent missile test launch.
North Korea launched multiple short-range anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea and Sukhoi jets fired air-to-surface missiles on April 14 as part of its ongoing military exercises, South Korea’s military confirmed.
North Korea has never announced who would follow Kim in the event he is incapacitated, and with few details known about his young children, analysts say his sister Kim Yo Jong and loyalists could form a regency until a successor is old enough to take over.
Kim Yo Jong was promoted to the head of the propaganda department of the Workers' Party of Korea in October 2017.
Kim became leader when his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011 from a heart attack.
