A prominent North Korean defector claims Kim Jong-un's health is so poor he "cannot stand up by himself or walk properly".
It is the latest claim to emerge amid rampant speculation and wildly varying reports about Kim's health and the reason for his absence from public view.
Conflicting and unverified reports - citing a variety of sources - have claimed the dictator is dead, in a vegetative state or coma, recovering in a mountainside villa after heart surgery, hiding from coronavirus in a seaside compound or simply "alive and well".
Claims out of North Korea are almost impossible to verify due to the country's secrecy and isolation, and it's anyone's guess what is truth and what is fiction at this point.
North Korea's state TV and newspapers haven't shown any new images of Kim since one taken at a Politburo meeting on April 11, and they haven't reported anything that would suggest he is unwell or not in charge.
In an interview with CNN, Thae Yong-ho, who escaped North Korea, where he was a diplomat, and recently became a member of South Korea's parliament, suggested Kim has health problems.
He said: "I'm not quite sure whether he really had some surgery or whatever, but one thing is clear... he cannot stand up by himself or walk properly."
Mr Thae said only a handful of people close to Kim know the truth.
CNN had previously reported that Kim - believed to be about 36-years-old - was in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery.
It came after a source inside North Korea told Seoul-based website Daily NK, which is run by defectors, that Kim had undergone heart surgery at a hospital reserved exclusively for his family on April 12, a day after he was pictured at the meeting.
Kim's condition was considered stable following the operation and he was recovering at a villa while doctors continued to monitor him, the source added.
Since that report, unconfirmed reports have claimed he is dead, in a vegetative state or alive.
Before the first report emerged claiming he had undergone surgery, there was already speculation about Kim's status because he missed an annual birthday celebration for his late grandfather - Kim Il-sung, the country's founder - on April 15.
His unprecedented absence from that major event would not have gone unnoticed inside North Korea.
Mr Thae told CNN: "Kim Jong Un is not only the leader of North Korea, but he is the grandson of Kim Il Sung... to North Korean eyes it is really abnormal."
South Korea's presidency has said no unusual movements have been detected in North Korea and cautioned against reports that Kim may be ill.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he had a good idea how Kim Jong Un is doing and hopes he is fine, but would not elaborate.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he was aware of reports on Kim's health and he was paying close attention to developments.
South Korea's unification minister Kim Yeon-chul, who oversees the country's engagement with the North, said on Tuesday that fear of catching Covid-19 could have kept Kim away from state ceremonies for his grandfather's birthday.
He told lawmakers: "It is true that he had never missed the anniversary for Kim Il-sung's birthday since he took power, but many anniversary events including celebrations and a banquet had been cancelled because of coronavirus concerns."
He said there were at least two instances since mid-January where Kim Jong Un was out of sight for nearly 20 days.
He added: "I don't think that's particularly unusual given the current (coronavirus) situation."
A unnamed source in China told JoongAng Ilbo, a newspaper in South Korea, that Kim was forced to skip the Day of the Sun commemoration for his grandfather because one of his bodyguards was suspected to have contracted Covid-19.
It would have put Kim, those close to him and his other bodyguards in danger of catching the potentially deadly virus, and it also would have put a restriction on his public appearances, the report added.
The birthday celebration for Kim Il-sung is held annually at Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a mausoleum where the embalmed bodies of the country's founder and his son Kim Jong-il both lie in state in glass coffins.
In its report, JoonAng Ilbo quoted a Chinese official who said: "Kim is alive and well."
Moon Chung-in, a foreign policy adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, told CNN on Sunday that the North Korean leader is still "alive and well".
Another South Korean newspaper, Dong-A Ilbo, quoted an unnamed US official as saying Kim left Pyongyang for a resort compound in the seaside city of Wonsan to avoid the virus.
The official claimed some of Kim's aides and high-ranking officials had contracted Covid-19.
Kim was seen walking on his own between April 15 and 20, the official added.
South Korea's unification minister described reports that Kim had undergone a heart procedure and that a Chinese medical team had travelled to North Korea as "fake news".
Citing three people familiar with the situation, Reuters reported on Saturday that China had dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on Kim, though it was unclear what the trip signalled in terms of the leader's health.
JoongAng Ilbo's source in China said Beijing urgently sent about 50 medical experts to North Korea on Thursday to support the country's Covid-19 containment measures.
Another source told the newspaper that Pyongyang had asked China to send coronavirus testing kits after previously asking for masks and other protective gear.
North Korea has insisted that it has had zero cases of coronavirus while the world deals with a pandemic that as infected millions and killed more than 210,000.
Pyongyang had cancelled some large events, and imposed a border lockdown and quarantine measures in an effort to prevent an outbreak of the coronavirus.
There were unverified claims that North Korea's first Covid-19 patient was executed and hundreds of soldiers stationed near China, where the outbreak began late last year, had caught the virus.
Other reports suggested that almost 300 people had died after contracting the illness.
If Kim is hiding out due to fears surrounding Covid-19, it would "puncture a hole in the state media narrative of how this crisis has been perfectly managed", said Chad O'Carroll, CEO of Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea.
"If he is merely trying to avoid infection, it should theoretically be very easy to release photos or videos of a healthy-looking Kim," he said.
An authoritative source familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting told Reuters it was entirely possible Kim had disappeared from public view to avoid exposure to coronavirus and the sighting of his presidential train in the coastal resort area of Wonsan did suggest he may be there or have been there recently.
But the source said that since there was no authoritative backing for such a conclusion, US agencies were also still considering the possibility Kim might be ill, even seriously.
The train was spotted last week in satellite images of the leader's compound, the Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, 38 North, reported.
It said the train was at the "leadership station", which is reserved for the ruling family, on April 21 and as recently as April 23.
The report stated: "The train's presence does not prove the whereabouts of the North Korean leader or indicate anything about his health but it does lend weight to reports that Kim is staying at an elite area on the country's eastern coast."
Mr Thae said the train could be a deception tactic used by North Korea to mask Kim's movements.
"North Korea always perceives that U.S. spy satellites are monitoring the North and is prepared for it," he said in a post on Facebook.
