North Korean leader Kim Jong Un voted in nationwide local elections on Sunday that registered the near 100 per cent turnout claimed for every ballot held in the nuclear-armed state.

Only those overseas “on foreign tour or working in oceans” were unable to vote, the North’s state-run agency KCNA reported Sunday, adding that even “voters troubled with aging or illness cast their ballots into mobile ballot boxes”.

Given the absence of any competition among candidates, elections in the North are essentially a political ritual which, observers say, allows the authorities to claim a popular mandate while reinforcing loyalty to Kim’s regime.

The isolated nation holds local elections every four years to elect representatives to provincial, city and county assemblies. Typically, 99 per cent of voters in the de facto single-party state take part in the polls and 99 per cent of them cast “yes” votes for uncontested candidates.

Kim visited a polling station in North Hamgyong province and voted for two candidates named Ju Song Ho and Jong Song Sik running for county assemblies in the area, KCNA reported.