N. Korea leader steps up visits despite illness

SEOUL, Tuesday

North Korean media said today that leader Kim Jong-il was keeping up a busy schedule of visits around the country, a day after a South Korean television station said he had life-threatening pancreatic cancer.

The reclusive state’s media has often shown Kim touring factories, farms and military bases this year, trying to convey a sense of normalcy for North Koreans during a period of uncertainty in the impoverished country, experts said.

They said such trips could also be as helpful at building internal support for the 67-year-old leader as recent nuclear and missile tests, military moves seen as partly driven by Kim’s efforts to pave the way for succession to his youngest son.

“If his appearance has changed severely, it may only reinforce the view of the North Korean public that Kim Jong-il is going out of his way to work for them, which increases sympathy from the people,” said Mr Koh Yu-hwan, a specialist on the North’s leadership at the South’s Dongguk University.

The North’s KCNA news agency said today that Mr Kim toured a tile factory. It released photographs of the undated visit where his thinning hair was tousled and his body appeared gaunt.

“He expressed great satisfaction over the fact that the soldier builders have built the modern factory in such a manner,” KCNA said.

It is only on rare occasions that North Korea shows Mr Kim as a grand leader presiding over state events. Instead, he is mostly seen in photographs touring towns and villages.

These visits, known as field guidance, secure his leadership by showing he shares his people’s pain and understands their hardships, even though intelligence accounts say he lives a life of luxury.

Despite his health problems, Mr Kim has been reported this year in North Korean media as making more than 80 such visits, a sharp increase from a year ago, the South’s Unification Ministry said.

Further questions were raised about Mr Kim’s health after South Korean broadcaster YTN, quoting intelligence sources, said on Monday he was suffering from pancreatic cancer.

US and South Korean officials would not confirm the report but have said Kim suffered a stroke a year ago and his health still appears to be poor.

A state event

North Korea’s official TV showed a sickly looking Kim at a state event last week.

Mr Kim has not anointed a successor, but South Korean officials said top communist and military officials have been asked to pledge loyalty to his youngest son Jong-un, thought to be 25, in an apparent sign he is the heir to Asia’s only communist dynasty. (Reuters)