Report: N. Korea's Kim suffers 'serious' setback

[October 29, 2008]  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korean intelligence indicates that ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il suffered a serious health setback and has been hospitalized, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The report in the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper cited an unnamed government official in saying intelligence obtained Sunday suggested "a serious problem" with Kim's health. The report did not elaborate.

Kim, 66, reportedly suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery in August. North Korea, however, denies he is ill.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service and its Unification Ministry said Wednesday they were aware of the Dong-a report but could not confirm it.

The report came a day after Japan's prime minister told lawmakers in Tokyo that Kim probably is in the hospital, though "not unable" to make decisions as North Korea's leader.

The chief of the National Intelligence Service had told lawmakers Tuesday that Kim was "not physically perfect" but still able to rule the country.

Speculation about the reclusive leader's health grew when he missed a September military parade marking North Korea's 60th anniversary. He then disappeared from public sight for two months.

Kim, who rules the Stalinist nation with absolute authority, has not publicly named any successors, leading to concerns about an uncertain future in the impoverished, nuclear-armed nation.

North Korea has sought in recent weeks to tamp down rumors about Kim's health with news reports and footage portraying the leader as active and able, attending a soccer game and inspecting a military unit. The reports, photos and video are undated.

The latest footage, aired Monday and Tuesday on North Korean television, showed Kim hitting the road earlier this year to tour farms and factories and to see the sights across the communist North.

The 50-minute montage set to patriotic music showed a sprightly Kim in his trademark jumpsuit and sunglasses -- and wearing a winter parka, his hair blowing in the wind, in footage shot in May, months before his reported stroke.

Experts say the photos and footage shown in recent weeks appear to have been taken several months ago, before Kim's reported stroke.

Japan's Fuji television has reported that Kim's eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, flew recently to Paris to recruit a neurosurgeon to treat his father.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso told lawmakers Tuesday that the French doctor got on a plane for Beijing, perhaps en route to North Korea. South Korea's NIS chief Kim Sung-ho also said the son was believed to have traveled to France recently.

The French weekly Le Point said on its Web site Tuesday that neurosurgeon Francois-Xavier Roux, a close friend of French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, was traveling to North Korea to give medical care to Kim.

But Roux denied Wednesday that he was in North Korea. Reached by The Associated Press on his cell phone, the physician said he was in Beijing for a meeting of neurosurgeons -- "nothing extraordinary."

"If I was at Kim Jong Il's bedside, I wouldn't be answering the phone," Roux said. "I am in Beijing. I am staying in Beijing."

Roux told the AP that his trip to China had nothing to do with Kim. He blamed the confusion on "a Japanese TV station (that) has done some brainwashing, some manipulation," apparently referring to the Fuji television report.

[Associated Press; By JEAN H. LEE]

Associated Press writer John Leicester contributed to this report from Paris.

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