North Korea's Kim Jong-un appears to have shed a few pounds after new photos of the hermit state's supreme leader emerged.

The fearsome dictator ballooned in weight after assuming control of the country in 2011 but pictures from Friday show Kim looking slightly slimmer than normal.

However it is impossible to verify when exactly the photos were taken due to the nation's lock-down on most visitors.

Happy and healthy. Kim looks a picture of health as he tours the Mangyongdae Revolutionary Souvenir Factory in Pyongyang

Kim's weight problems have sparked speculation over his diet and health. It was claimed he was suffering from gout after he was seen walking with a stick.

South Korea's main news agency, Yonhap, reported that the leader has had binge eating problems amid fears he would be subject to an assassination attempt.

Despite these problems photos from the tour of the newly renovated Mangyongdae Revolutionary Souvenir Factory in capital Pyongyang shows Kim looking healthy and happy.

A picture from May last year (right) shows Kim with a fuller face and protruding stomach. Whereas photos from Friday (left) show the leader has trimmed down

He can be seen inspecting goods and machines while flanked by Workers' Party of Korea officials.

He also posed for photos with employees in the factory like he did with missile scientists and military units after Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test on September 9.

According to the country's official news agency KCNA the rotund leader told factory workers that 'their work is important.'

The leader toured the facility with party officials who seemed to follow his every move

'Through our strength and skills, and on the basis of [our] raw materials, another production base for consumer goods has been bestowed' on the people, Kim said, according to KCNA.

Kim said in a North Korean report issued Friday, 'Factories are being rebuilt, and more modern consumer goods plants for the people, with leading edge equipment and technical processes, must be constructed.'

The young leader, who took over the reclusive nation after his father after Kim Jong-il died, has yet to visit areas in the extremely impoverished north of the country after torrential rain caused severe flooding.

There have been reports of an out break in cholera due to the absence of safe drinking water.

South Korea's unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee had said Kim might not be visiting because flood recovery had not been completed, according to News 1.

However the country's north is often overlooked by the government in Pyongyang as those deemed to be less faithful to regime are placed further away from the capital and are said to live in squalor.

The state says 133 died after floods swept through North Hamgyong Province in late August and early September.

Hundreds of thousands of people were also forced out of their homes.

While six young school pupils and seven teachers are reported to have died in severe North Korean floods while trying to save portraits of the relatives of Kim.