Un size does not fit all: Kim Jong Un wears baggy trousers as he walks the red carpet at ceremony to mark building project

North Korea's rotund ruler Kim Jong Un has been pictured wearing exceptionally baggy trousers while walking the red carpet at a ceremony this week.

The dictator waved to adoring crowds as he arrived at the event in Pyongyang to mark the completion of the second phase of a 10,000-unit housing development.

He was then seen in his current favourite black leather bomber jacket as he used scissors to cut the red ribbon while standing on top of a large podium, decorated with communist red ribbons and adorned with a golden hammer and sickle. 

'Completion ceremony for 10,000 households second phase of Hwaseong district April 16,' read yellow Korean text on the podium.

Below were hundreds of North Korean citizens waving brightly coloured balloons and the country's flag. Some were seen crying as they caught sight of their leader.

Kim has often been spotted sporting baggy trousers or 'loon pants'.

It has been suggested in the past that the despot favours baggy clothes to help hide his weight, which has been reported to be 22 stone in the past.

Others have suggested his choice of attire is a rejection of Western styles.

Some reports have suggested his various uniforms - which have changed and adapted over the years - are of his own design. 

In 2019, Business Insider pointed out that a number of his clothing choices have resembled those worn by China's late Chairman Mao, although in recent years there have been some signs of relaxation - such as his leather jacket.

'Kim Jong Un's got some cool clothes. If he were from America, he would be one of these fellas we see in Portland, in Brooklyn, one of these hipster guys. He's into the vintage look and I don't blame him,' one analyst told Business Insider at the time.

Meanwhile, North Korean citizens are banned from wearing a number of clothing items. Last year, it was reported that women had been banned from wearing shorts because they were deemed 'capitalist fashion' - although men can still wear them.

Kim's Tuesday appearance came days after Kim was spotted out and about with a Korean pop star who has in the past been rumoured to be his mistress. 

Having left her role in North Korea's premier girl group, the Moranbong Band, Hyon Song-wol now works in the dictator's personal secretariat.

Last week she was spotted with Kim in Pyongyang, where she was seen glued to her phone while the other aides frantically took notes.

Now a retired spymaster says that their relationship is more than professional, and that she and the despot have a love child.

Choe Su-yong, formerly of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in neighbouring South Korea, said the child was named Kim Il-bong.

Choe recently told the Korea Times that Kim Jong-un also has a legitimate son with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, but the boy is too 'pale and thin' for public life.

Speaking to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, he described the contrast between the half brothers. 

He said: 'The illegitimate son, Kim Il-bong, is sturdy, but the first son born to Kim's wife is skinny to the extent of being described in North Korean terms as pitiful.'

According to the ex-spy, Kim Jong-un met Hyon Song-wol when he was still at school in Switzerland.

Choe said that Hyon served the future tyrant and his sister, Kim Yo-jong, as a nanny-cum-caretaker, but a relationship formed and continued on their return to North Korea.

Kim's father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, disapproved of the match and ordered him to break it off, according to a South Korean report from 2012.

But after his father's death, 'the son is thought to have rekindled the relationship' the report said.

Michael Madden, founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, said there was good reason to believe that the duo first bonded in Switzerland.

He said: 'One thing we can say, I think, with a fairly good degree of confidence in its accuracy, is that they had a close relationship when he was studying in Switzerland.

'What ended up happening was that members of these elite performing arts troupes went and sort of lived in the house with them, and looked after and took care of them.

'There's a very good chance that Hyon Song-wol might have resided with Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong when they lived in Switzerland, or she might have gone to visit them.'

'We can say pretty reliably that they have a very close relationship,' he added.

The ribbon cutting also came after a report found that North Korea is putting surveillance cameras in schools and workplaces and collecting fingerprints, photographs and other biometric information from its citizens in a technology-driven push to monitor its population even more closely.

The state's growing use of digital surveillance tools, which combine equipment imported from China with domestically developed software, threatens to erase many of the small spaces North Koreans have left to engage in private business activities, access foreign media and secretly criticize their government, the researchers wrote.

But the isolated country's digital ambitions have to contend with poor electricity supplies and low network connectivity. 

Those challenges, and a history of reliance on human methods of spying on its citizens, mean that digital surveillance isn't yet as pervasive as in China, according to the report, published by the North Korea-focused website 38 North.

The study's findings align with widely held views that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is stepping up efforts to tighten the state's control of its citizens and promote loyalty to his regime.

These efforts were boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the North imposed stringent border controls that were maintained for three years before a cautious reopening in 2023.

New laws and recent reports of harsher punishments suggest that the government is cracking down on foreign influence and imported media.

These are likely helped by fences and electronic monitoring systems installed on the border with China during the pandemic.