Kim Jong Il may have suffered stroke

[Jenna]

There was no sign of Kim Jong Il at a closely watched parade Tuesday marking the 60th anniversary of North Korea's founding, as a U.S. intelligence report said he may have suffered a stroke.

A U.S. intelligence official said there is reason to believe Kim Jong Il, 66, is sick after he failed to show up at the national celebration. That official and another U.S. source spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

In a broadcast monitored in Seoul, Korean Central Television showed North Korea's No. 2 leader and other officials atop a viewing stand. Kim Jong Il was not shown.
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"It does appear that Kim Jong-Il has suffered a health setback, potentially a stroke," an official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

She said there have been no signs of a change in governing power and that assessing whether Kim was still capable of governing would "call for a lot of speculation."

Earlier, South Korea's largest daily, the Chosun Ilbo, said Kim collapsed last month, citing a South Korean diplomatic source in Beijing.

Kim has not been seen in public for a month and U.S. officials were closely watching the day's military parade for signs to the leader's health. As leader, Kim attended parades for the 50th and 55th anniversary of the state founded by his father, Kim Il-sung, whose own death was not announced for 34 hours.

North Koreans call Kim the "Dear Leader" and he holds absolute power in the Stalinist regime. He has three sons with two different mothers but has not anointed any of them as his successor.

South Korea's military said the North had been massing weapons for days to show them off in its capital in a spectacle that followed a report Kim may be seriously ill.

Kim failed to show up for the anniversary parade that featured displays of armaments, legions of goose-stepping soldiers and tens of thousands of fawning North Koreans shouting praises to him in unison, according to a North Korea state TV broadcast monitored in Seoul.

Kim's health is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the world's first communist dynasty, but Kim himself, at a summit with South Korea's president in October 2007, dismissed persistent media speculation he was ill.

"I make a little move and that gets huge coverage," Kim said in rare comments. "It seems like they're fiction writers and not journalists."

Analysts have cautioned not to read too much into the public appearances of Kim, who can drop out of sight for months and then show up in field guidance tours to military bases, farms and factories for visits described by the North's propaganda machine as showing his tireless devotion to the communist state.

"He may also not wanted to appear because international aid is drying up and the country might have had trouble giving out presents to its people to mark the anniversary," said Shunji Hiraiwa, a professor at the University of Shizuoka in Japan.

Military experts keep a close eye on these set-piece parades to see if the secretive North unveils any new weapons systems.

"The North probably wants to boost the image of its military might in order to cement unity within the country and secure a better position in the denuclearization negotiations," the Seoul daily JoongAng Ilbo cited a South Korean government official who is familiar with the North as saying.

North Korea began taking apart its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant last November as called for in a disarmament-for-aid deal it struck with five regional powers.

The North, which tested a nuclear device about two years ago, had completed most of the required disablement steps and experts said it would take a year or more for it to restart the plant.

It stopped disabling Yongbyon in August, angered by Washington's failure to drop it from a U.S. terrorism blacklist. The United States said North Korea must first agree on a system to verify Pyongyang's disclosures about its nuclear programs.

"(North Korea) has gotten about all she can get from President Bush. It's time to try to rattle the next administration a little bit and see if she can't get a little more," Richard Armitage, a former senior State Department official in the Bush administration, said at a seminar in Seoul.

Armitage said North Korea might conduct a missile test in order to ratchet up pressure.

Under Kim, the North's already anemic economy has taken a turn for the worse, while the Pyongyang leadership has used the threat of its military arsenal to squeeze concessions out of regional powers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26622075/

[Terminator]

If he strokes
Let's hope he croaks

[MacLean]

If he croaks, things could go well... or not so well.

[sgtbear111]

Perhaps the Obama "change" team is interviewing him at an undisclosed place, for a possible appointed position as the new Sec.Def. ??? Check the gossip rags or Oprah.

[Bob Loblaw]

I am absolutely fascinated by this guy...how out of touch with reality he keeps his subjects is absolutely amazing. His PR team released a statement a couple of years ago that he took up the game of golf on a whim. In that 18 hole round, which was his first ever, he shot 11 holes-in-one and finished at -34 in relation to par according to his handlers. I wouldn't have believed them if they said he broke 100 in his first round ever, let alone distancing himself as the greatest golfer the world has ever known.
http://www.worldgolf.com/blogs/willi...es_makes_kim_j

[Terminator]

Let's face it, when that wacko is dead we will all be better off.

[bayern]

Perhaps the Obama "change" team is interviewing him at an undisclosed place, for a possible appointed position as the new Sec.Def. ??? Check the gossip rags or Oprah.

Right on - he's working with Nobamas transition team setting up the camps.

[MacLean]

Let's face it, when that wacko is dead we will all be better off.

I agree that I would like to see him dead, but I'm not sure we will be better off - at least in the short term.