Experts have cast doubt on recent claims about the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the delegation of responsibilities to his aides and sister.
On Thursday, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) claimed Kim Jong-un had given his sister Kim Yo-jong partial authority to oversee 'general state affairs'.
His aides were also given more responsibility in order to ease the North Korean leader's workload, but Kim still maintains "absolute power", CNN reported.
However, experts have told news and analysis website NK News the rumours are "not something groundbreakingly new".
They questioned whether the spy agency was simply referring to a June press release from Kim Yo-jong which said her brother "authorised" her to make decisions on South Korea affairs, and the recent election of two new senior political members.
"I do not see any fundamental differences in how decisions are made in North Korea," Martin Weiser, an independent researcher on North Korea politics, said.
"Kim Jong-un will still have a veto in all decisions, and he should be regularly informed of other officials' work."
Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, said Kim still retains "absolute power" and his sister hasn't taken over the leadership.
He also added that top North Korean officials were being given "significant autonomy in policy decisions" for their respective sectors, meaning that they would likely take the fall for any failures.
The same day of the NIS rumour, former South Korean official Chang Song-min told local media Kim had fallen into a coma and the reports he was delegating power was proof.
"I assess him to be in a coma, but his life has not ended," Chang said.
"A complete succession structure has not been formed, so Kim Yo-jong is being brought to the fore as the vacuum cannot be maintained for a prolonged period."
Chang also claimed all photographs of Kim released by North Korea in recent months were fake, according to the Korea Herald.
NK News said the timing of the two rumours meant news outlets tried to connect them.
"The news then quickly spiralled into another international rumour mill, with major foreign news outlets such as the New York Post and Fox News also linking together the coma rumour and rumours of Kim Yo-jong's rise."
Sang-sin Lee, a researcher at the Korean Institute of National Unification (KINU), said it was too far fetched for pundits to use the NIS's "exaggerated" claim as proof Kim Jong-un's health is deteriorating.
He said the distribution of more responsibilities to officials in the military, government and the party is a way of running North Korea in a more "normal" communist manner.
NK News also looked into Chang's claims the recent photos of Kim Jong-un were faked.
They said despite North Korean state media being known to frequently photoshop still images, including those featuring Kim Jong-un, some public appearances were also caught on video providing additional visual reference points.
"An NK News analysis comparing the videos with commercially-available satellite imagery suggests that the visits likely took place just days prior to the state media reports — a conclusion made by matching the location of items on the ground and the stages of building construction."
