POTUS tweeted Saturday -- a day after photos surfaced of Kim at some ribbon-cutting ceremony at a factory there, which the media (that he and his regime control) claims were taken this weekend as proof that KJU is still kicking -- and didn't question the authenticity.

He wrote, "I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!" His words came in the form of a retweet from a user who put up the photos and a caption that reads ... "KimJongUn cut the tape at the ceremony marking the completion of Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory in Sunchon. #NorthKorea." That same user also attached video that purportedly shows Kim walking around the factory grounds on his own two feet, smiling and taking it all in.

Of course, if the photos show what N. Korea says they show, it would be the first public appearance Kim's made since early April -- after which rumors swirled about his health. Some reports from overseas claimed he was actually dead at one point, while others hedged more, claiming he was either on his death bed, in "grave danger" or in a vegetative state.

Considering Kim and co. run a brutal dictatorship and control all the information that seeps out to the world, we, for one, are inclined to take their media's reporting with a grain of salt. Fact is ... we don't know for sure when this visit took place. And, we doubt many outside North Korea do either.