Kim Jong-un looks unrecognisable 10 years ago – before ballooning to 22st stone then shedding the pounds
KIM Jong-un looks almost unrecognisable as a fresh-faced dictator just four months after taking power in North Korea.
The snap from April 2012 was before his cheese obsession and rumoured compulsive eating saw him balloon to over 22st and a reported body mass index of 49 - meaning he was classed as morbidly obese.
South Korean spies estimated Kim put on more than a stone a year after succeeding his father as Supreme Leader in December 2011.
Back then the baby-faced tyrant appeared much trimmer as he set the pariah nation on course to build its first ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads.
China's state-run People Daily newspaper even reported Kim had been voted the world's "sexiest man alive" in November 2012 after falling for .
Over the years, pictures showed how the fridge-raiding, chain-smoking despot piled on the pounds.
Although he was never a healthy weight, he has ballooned in size since he first appeared on the world’s stage a decade ago.
The pampered private schoolboy is said to have a legendary appetite, gorging on Swiss cheese and lobster while drinking up to ten bottles of wine a night.
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By 2018 - when he held two summits with Donald Trump - he was noticeably much rounder.
And by 2020, South Korea's intelligence agency estimated he tipped the scales at around 22st.
Standing at 5ft 6in, that gives him a body mass index of 49.4.
Experts said he was "a heart attack waiting to happen" as severe obesity is linked to a fourfold increase in cardiac failure.
His father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il-sung both died of heart attacks.
His obesity also put him at much higher risk of diabetes and other diseases.
Fears for his health - and his regular disappearances from public view in recent years - prompted a power struggle among potential successors.
He was even widely rumoured to be dead at one point after he had not been seen for weeks.
'Emaciated'
Last year North Korea watchers were amazed to see Kim emerge from another period of absence looking much slimmer.
It prompted speculation he may have had a gastric bypass.
Kim was said to have shed around 44lbs in three months, prompting almost unprecedented mention of his appearance on state television.
A report featured an unnamed North Korean citizen close to tears saying the "Glorious Leader" looked "emaciated" and people were very concerned.
Analysts said the Pyongyang propaganda machine was trying to shore up Kim's popularity as millions in the country were close to starvation.
Later pictures showed baggy suits hanging off him at public appearances.
And in October, internet sleuths renewed theories Kim was using a body double after the latest photos of svelte-looking Kim were published.
Kim looked slimmer and more miserable than ever at a memorial service in December.
It sparked yet more speculation about his health and whether the weight loss is down to diet or illness.
This week North Korean media released fresh pictures of the dictator - who is said to be aged between 38 and 40 - at a politburo meeting in Pyongyang.
He looked not only slimmer but older, with a stark angular haircut and a new suit made to fit his lighter frame.
Rumours around his health are unlikely to subside any time soon, analysts say.
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It comes after North Korea launched four rockets in the first few weeks of 2022.
Kim was not pictured at the launches as he has been in the past.
