Sports-mad leader, who is thought to be ill, did not attend celebrations for returning athletes after impressive medal haul

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

North Koreans lined the streets of Pyongyang to welcome home athletes from the Asian Games – but sports-fanatic Kim Jong-un, who is believed to be ill, was not among them.

Senior officials from the Workers’ party and the military welcomed the athletes at the airport on Sunday, state media said, but there was no mention of Kim attending.

North Korea’s leader has not been seen in public for more than a month, prompting speculation about his health. However, officials on a surprise visit to South Korea denied on Sunday that there was anything wrong with him.

Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans came out on to the streets to greet the athletes who took part in the games in South Korea, state media reports said.

North Korea’s 150 athletes won 11 gold medals and 25 silver and bronze in the country’s best Asian Games performance since 1990.

The North Koreans were widely cheered by South Korean crowds at the event in Incheon even though the two countries remain technically at war.

Each athlete left the plane at Pyongyang airport wrapped in a North Korean flag.

North Korea’s women footballers, who beat Japan 1-0 in the Asian Games final, led the cavalcade, according to the reports.

“The players received fervent welcome from hundreds of thousands of citizens in Pyongyang who lined the streets,” the Korean Central News Agency said.

The mass welcome lasted for more than six miles, according to KCNA, adding that the “streets turned into a sea of flowers”.

Nearly everyone in the crowd was seen carrying a bouquet. Some families keep plastic or paper flowers that they use when ordered to appear for such events.

When the parade reached the Keasonmun, Pyongyang’s version of the Arc de Triomphe, “the crowd raised stormy cheers”, KCNA said.

All the cars were emblazoned with portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, respectively the current leader’s grandfather and father.

The athletes laid wreaths and paid tribute at the huge statues of the two Kims in the centre of the city, the reports said.

The ruling party’s official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, gave extensive coverage to the athletes with stories and pictures filling the first three pages.

“We warmly welcome our proud sons and daughters who made the dignity and strength of North Korean Juche well known,” read the front-page headline. Juche is the North’s hardline ideology of self-reliance.

The Rodong Sinmun attributed the country’s Asian Games medals to Kim Jong-un and his policy of emphasising sport.

Despite their success at the Asian Games, North Korea’s women footballers are banned from taking part in next year’s World Cup in Canada after five players failed drug tests at the last World Cup in 2011.

North Korea is also in trouble with the International Gymnastics Federation.

Two days before the Asian Games started, the federation banned a North Korean gymnast who had lied about her age. It said the Pyongyang government submitted a fake passport for Cha Yong-Hwa.