South Korea’s spy agency now classifies Kim Jong-un as extremely obese and at high risk of cardiovascular disease after he packed on weight past 310 pounds, a Seoul lawmaker says.
Seoul politician Youn Kun-young, citing South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, said the North Korean leader’s condition is classified as extremely obese and that he weighs more than 310 pounds. Youn also said Kim faces a high risk of cardiovascular disease even while showing no trouble with physical activity under constant medical watch.
Daily Mail reporting carried the assessment and the surrounding details on Kim’s habits, family health history, and succession chatter inside the nuclear-armed state.
Youn framed the picture in careful terms. Kim has shown no difficulty moving, including running up stairs, and remains under a dedicated medical team. The same remarks still placed him in the extreme-obesity category with elevated heart risk.
"It is assessed that there are no signs of health issues, given the close monitoring by (his) dedicated medical team."
That is the official line from the Seoul politician citing the NIS. The weight figure and the disease-risk label sat beside it.
Kim’s diet has long drawn attention. In 2019, during a North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi, executive chef Paul Smart of the Metropole hotel worked with the leader’s personal cooks and described a taste for the richest plates.
"He likes caviar, lobster, really luxurious product. Foie gras, he really likes to indulge in cuisine."
Smart also said the steaks the North Korean side brought were not far from Japanese wagyu and were cooked rare. Those details sit against United Nations warnings that food insecurity remains a key humanitarian concern inside North Korea.
A dictator who can demand caviar and foie gras while his country struggles with basic food supply is not a mystery of nutrition science. It is a regime priority list made visible on one man’s plate.
Kim’s family history sharpens the risk picture. His father, Kim Jong Il, was obese and a heavy smoker and died of a heart attack. His grandfather, Kim Il Sung, carried the same pattern of obesity and heavy smoking and also died of a heart attack.
Reporting has long described Kim Jong-un himself as a heavy smoker with chronic obesity. The new NIS-linked classification puts a number on the weight and ties it directly to cardiovascular danger.
In 2020, Kim missed a commemoration of his late grandfather’s birthday and stayed out of public view for about 20 days. Rumors then swirled that he was seriously ill after surgery. He later reappeared, but the absence fed lasting questions about how the system would handle a sudden vacuum.
Health questions around an absolute ruler always turn into succession questions. Months before the obesity assessment drew fresh notice, the NIS said it believed Kim’s daughter, roughly 13 years old and widely identified as Kim Ju-ae, is poised to be named future leader.
She has accompanied her father to a growing list of events, including weapons tests, military parades, and factory openings. North Korean state media has called her her father’s “most beloved” or “respected” child and has poured out footage and photos meant to prove closeness and rising standing.
Earlier this month, the NIS also said it was trying to determine whether Kim has a son. If one exists, the agency assessed, he is not in position to become successor. The public push around the daughter is the clearest signal the regime has offered so far.
A nuclear state that elevates a young teenager in state media while its leader is labeled extremely obese and high-risk for heart disease is not projecting stability. It is advertising contingency planning.
Youn’s remarks tried to calm and alarm at the same time. No current signs of health failure, he said, because of close monitoring. Extremely obese. More than 310 pounds. High risk of cardiovascular disease. Able to run stairs.
Those claims can sit in one briefing. They do not cancel each other. A dedicated medical team can watch a patient every hour and still confront the same family pattern that killed the two men who held the job before him.
South Korea’s intelligence service does not control Kim’s diet, his smoking, or his public calendar. It can only report what it assesses. The assessment now on record is blunt: extreme obesity, serious heart risk, and a regime already rehearsing the next generation in front of the cameras.
Tyrants who feast while their people go hungry eventually meet the limits of the human body, and the world has to live with whatever comes next.
