LinkNorth Korea has dismissed reports that its leader Kim Jong-il might be seriously ill.
The country's nominal number two, Kim Yong-nam, told Japan's Kyodo news agency in Pyongyang that there was 'no problem'.
And a senior North Korean diplomat, Song Il-ho, told Kyodo earlier: 'We see such reports as not only worthless, but rather as a conspiracy plot.'
Speculation grew after the 66-year-old leader, widely believed to suffer from debilitating illnesses, failed to appear at a parade yesterday to mark the country's 60th anniversary.
The health concerns come just as the North appears to be going back on a deal with major powers to scrap a programme to develop nuclear weapons in return for massive financial aid and a chance to be accepted into the rest of the world.
But South Korean MPs said after a briefing by the country's intelligence chief that Mr Kim had suffered a stroke but his condition was under control.
The death of Kim Jong-il would create huge uncertainty over leadership in a country whose deep distrust of the outside world is backed by one of the globe's largest standing armies and probably has atomic weapons.
His health and the identity of any possible successor are two of the most closely guarded secrets in the paranoid state.
Interesting. I wonder who'd take over if KJI died?
