Kim Jong-un walks beside the hearse containing his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011. The transition of power led many to fear instability in the nuclear-armed country. Photograph: 朝鮮通信社/AP

Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin toast their summit in Vladivostok in 2019. Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/TASS South Korea, Japan, Ukraine, the United States and European countries have been alarmed by the visit, with several nations issuing a warning regarding potential violations of international sanctions by North Korea and Russia. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, has been pictured wearing a surgical face mask for the first time after his isolated nation finally confirmed an outbreak of Covid cases. The virus is a potential disaster for the impoverished country, which has shunned international offers of vaccines.

Rail freight traffic between the North Korean town of Sinujiu and China's Dandong had tentatively reopened in January after Kim's regime forced the country into two years of strict isolation to stop the pandemic from crippling its already weak healthcare system.

A three-week absence in 2020 sparked rumours of heart surgery, with some reports suggesting he had died. A more plausible theory – that he had simply been isolating as a precaution during the pandemic – emerged after Kim reappeared, apparently in good health. The WHO recommends that you clean hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water before putting on a mask. North Korea’s 24 million people have also suffered under Kim, whose human rights abuses include the torture, humiliation and sexual assault of criminal suspects and the use of a network of gulags for the politically “impure”. Cover mouth and nose with mask. Loop the elastic straps around your ears and adjust the toggles, if available, so there are no gaps between your face and the mask. Much of what the outside world knows about North Korea comes from satellite imagery, brave citizen journalists equipped with contraband mobile phones, recent defectors, South Korea’s spy agency, the North’s state-run media and, inevitably, a degree of guesswork and speculation.

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My original motivation (with Hyperflesh) was to create a mask so real as to confuse and terrify. Those looking at the wearer would have a moment of uncomfortable disorientation because it looks real – but there’s something wrong. Uncanny valley stuff. I started off my career with baby designs about 17 years ago with the idea (behind Hyperflesh) being the terrifying juxtaposition of a baby’s head on an adult body. Kim has maintained his grip on power through a combination of the regime apparatus, keeping the elites happy who help sustain a Kim family leadership system, and employing brutal practices to enforce loyalty and eliminate threats.” This is a body armor with protection zones for the chest, shoulders, throat and groin, and it is much lighter than its known analogs,” the state news agency added. The celebrities came about more recently as another off putting connection the viewer would have with the subject matter. Like “Hey that’s Bryan Cranston… wait a minute, his head is too big… and it’s on a female body!” I try to keep up with pop culture to stay relevant, and obviously politics are all-consuming at the moment. Legendary NFL player Tom Brady 3D printed mask by Hyperflesh. 3DS: What is your production process for creating the 3D printed masks, and how long does it take? Kim Sin-gon, a professor at Seoul’s Korea University College of Medicine, said North Korea is likely signaling its willingness to receive outside vaccines, but wants many more doses than offered by COVAX to inoculate its entire population multiple times. He said North Korea would also want COVID-19 medicines and medical equipment shipments that are banned by U.N. sanctions.

His greatest test, though, could be largely home-grown, says the Hudson Institute’s Cronin. “The biggest unknown for Kim remains the true impact of Covid, which has stifled North Korean progress and may yet undermine the regime in ways not yet visible to the outside world,” he says. And yet, predictions that his regime is in danger of collapse are as hopelessly wide of the mark now as they were a decade ago. A ruthless leader-in-waiting While exact details remain scant on what sorts of talks have taken place behind closed doors, observers say it’s clear what each side is looking for from the other.

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Kim Jong-nam, the exiled half brother of Kim Jong-un, was killed in Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017. Photograph: Shizuo Kambayashi/AP A serious situation has been created due to the introduction of a stealth mutant virus into our precincts," the agency said, reporting that an emergency meeting of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party politburo had been called to discuss prevention measures. As Kim left, the governor of the far eastern Russian region of Primorye gave him a bulletproof vest and a set of drones, Russian state news agency TASS reported.