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North Korean leader 'suffering from pancreatic cancer'
North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il has pancreatic cancer, it was reported yesterday.
Seoul's news channel network YTN television said Kim, 67, was diagnosed with the cancer about the time he was felled by a stroke last summer.
The report cited unidentified intelligence officials in South Korea and China saying the disease was "threatening" Kim's life.
Kim's health is a focus of intense media speculation owing to concerns about instability and a power struggle if he were to die without naming a successor.
His third and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, has widely been reported as being groomed as heir, but the regime has made no announcement to the outside world.
Pancreatic cancer is usually found in its final stage and considering Kim's age, he is expected to live no more than five years, the report says.
South Korea's spy agency said it could not confirm the report.
Yesterday's report came after Kim made a rare public appearance last week, in an annual memorial for his late father and North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung.
Television footage showed him markedly thinner and with less hair – only the second state event he has attended in person since the reported stroke.
He also limped slightly and the sides of his tight-lipped mouth looked unbalanced in what were believed to be the effects of a stroke.
The images touched off speculation that he could have other health problems.
South Korea's spy agency has long suspected that Kim has diabetes and heart disease.
The totalitarian leader, whose rule is buttressed by an intense cult of personality, knew that the people of North Korea would pay great attention to the memorial, and his appearance there is a message that he is in charge, Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said last week.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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