Kim Jong-un finally emerged back onto the world stage this week after a 20-day absence, which led to much speculation about his health and wellbeing.
Smoking and walking briskly, the vision of Mr Kim opening a fertiliser factory outside Pyongyang released by North Korean state media put rumours that he was gravely ill, or dead, to bed.
But that still wasn’t quite enough to solve the mystery surrounding why he had been absent for so long or questions over his health.
Some analysts were quick to point out that this had happened before — Mr Kim has suffered issues and disappeared in the past.
And just like in other times, like when he re-emerged with a cane, there were some clues that might explain his absence.
But whatever the reason, Kim was back and ready to let the world know he was in control.
We’ll likely never know what really happened
Mintaro Oba, a former US State Department official who worked on North Korea policy issues, told the ABC it was impossible to know if Kim really had suffered severe health issues as a result of a cardiovascular procedure.
“The blunt truth is that we can speculate all we want about where Kim Jong-un was and why he disappeared, but we simply don’t know,” he said.
“It could be for health reasons, it could be for tactical reasons, we just don’t know with any certainty and probably won’t.”
But Mr Oba said other experts were looking very closely at the photos published by North Korean media of Mr Kim at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday and had pointed out a couple of things.
He said in particular, they noted a mark on Mr Kim’s arm that may indicate he indeed had some kind of cardiovascular procedure.
Sometimes a surgeon will insert a stent through the a