MIDLIFE MELTDOWN

Kim Jong-un has always been volatile and unpredictable but now, as he turns 40 amid health worries and other pressures, the North Korean dictator seems more unhinged than ever

- NICOLA SMITH

IT WAS just a tiny red dot on a fleshy right forearm, visible beneath the sleeve of one of Kim Jong-un’s trademark boxy polyester suits – seemingly inconsequential and yet it sparked an instant reaction among observers of the North Korean regime.

Was it the trace of an IV drip? A giveaway of surgery? At the very least, it was an unusual sign of vulnerability in a man who rules his nation with a suffocating grasp.

The needle mark was seen on footage shortly after Kim had been out of public view the previous month. Rumours had circulated that he was either dead or in a vegetative state.

When the dictator was finally seen, touring a fertiliser factory, foreign medical observers concluded the wound could be related to a cardiovascular procedure, possibly for a stent placement. The truth never emerged. So furtive is

Kim about his health that on rare trips abroad he travels with his own toilets, to prevent foreign intelligence services scouring his excretions for clues.

But the dramatic weight loss that followed his 2020 health scare, possibly due to a gastric bypass or other form of bariatric surgery, is proof that even dictators must endure the trials of middle age.

This year, according to our best guesses, Kim turns 40. It’s indicative of how little the outside world knows about him that conflicting sources will put him at 39 or even 38.

Either way, the approach of his fifth decade brings new anxieties, especially in the wake of the bad case of Covid he reportedly suffered last year.