SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il made his first public appearance since reports last month that he may have suffered a stroke, a state news report said on Saturday.
U.S. and South Korean officials said Kim, 66, may have suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about succession in Asia's only communist dynasty and about who was making decisions about its nuclear weapons programme.
North Korea's official media said Kim saw a soccer match. It has been about 50 days since the country's media noted Kim appearing in public.
"After watching the match, leader Kim Jong-il congratulated the players on their good results, saying that the revolutionary and militant students in our country are good at art and sporting activities," the North's KCNA news agency reported.
South Korean intelligence sources said Kim had been recovering from his illness and that he had not lost his grip on power despite falling ill.
Kim's reappearance came as the secretive state finished talks with a U.S. nuclear envoy who went to Pyongyang this week trying to save a disarmament deal and prevent the North from restarting its nuclear plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Louise Ireland)
