SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW VESSEL OFF NORTH KOREA'S WONSAN COAST

Satellite imagery shows an 80-metre vessel off North Korea's Wonsan coast on several occasions between July and mid-October. The vessel appears to have a 50-metre swimming pool along its deck, with waterslides at one end. It spent several months at a maintenance facility before moving in early July to waters off the Kalma Peninsula. The peninsula lies near a seaside resort where Kim Jong Un and his family use a villa.

The imagery also shows several other vessels near the villa. Former North Korean officials, defectors and experts say people outside the country's leadership would struggle to own or freely use vessels of that size. Ri Jong Ho, a former official at the Workers' Party's Office 39, described how the vessels moved between the shipyard and the coast. “When summer came, they would bring them out and move them to Kim Jong Un's villa or towards Kalma, and use them for swimming and recreation,” he said. Office 39 is believed to raise and manage foreign currency for North Korea's leadership.

North Korea's Korean Central News Agency released a photograph on 22 September that it said showed Kim speaking at a Workers' Party propaganda workshop in Pyongyang the previous day. Online rumours about Kim's health circulated days after the accounts of the vessels emerged. Wanjun Xie, identified as chairman of the China Democracy Party, claimed Kim had died after a severe cerebral haemorrhage. Xie also claimed Kim's sister, Kim Yo-jong, had taken control of North Korea. Neither claim has been confirmed.