N Korea dismisses reports of leader's ill health as 'conspiracy plot'

Wednesday 10th September, 01:31 PM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

Latest 15 of 31 Total Comments Show All

Nessie at 03:36 PM JST - 10th September

"Conspiracy plot"?

Make up your mind.
bushlover at 03:54 PM JST - 10th September

Come on power vaccumn. Lets see this country fall to civil war to see some real change. Then they can all cry over the Juche as being the cr@p01a it really is. I've read a bit of the translations of the stuff his daddy wrote. Pure ... well you know...
LFRAgain at 04:09 PM JST - 10th September

Of course, the current Kim turned out to be just as bad as his father, if not worse in terms of his unpredictability. If we're to put stock in the expression about apples not falling far from the tree, we should be more worried about this than elated. Better the enemy you do know than the one you don't and all that. Sure, one of the sons could turn out to be reasonable, but the odds of that are rather slim considering what details we know of their upbringing.
Alinsky4prez at 05:57 PM JST - 10th September

bummer. Just when the revolution was getting a full head of steam.

Looks like It's up to Barack and Hugo.
smithinjapan at 06:18 PM JST - 10th September

Kim Jong Il doesn't think too highly of any of his sons in particular, least of all the eldest. It's hard to say for a fact who would take over the reigns if he goes suddenly.

But let's not forget, Castro was also 'dying', and 'dead' for weeks according to US 'intelligence', so I wouldn't put TOO too much stock in the media reports.
smithinjapan at 06:20 PM JST - 10th September

sarge: "This can't be anything but good news."

Wrong, sarge. I'm not poking fun at you on this one, but I AM pointing out your odd rationale that 'when a dictator dies, it's good' isn't all that intelligent, considering what could come next. As I said, Kimmy isn't hugely overenthusiastic about any of his sons, and could well pass power onto someone WORSE, like one of the die-hard generals. THEN you would see the real S%&$ hit the fan! Could be very bad indeed, my friend.
sailwind at 06:21 PM JST - 10th September

Here is one case where I sure would rather not see the torch passed to the jonger generation.
bushlover at 06:43 PM JST - 10th September

So if power got passed to a General it automatically means the world is doomed? What kind of logic is that? Did Pakistan go to shiites when Mush was in power? Actually they are the ones that would hold it together more than if it were up to politicians exclusively unless they had a power struggle amongst themselves. I'd be willing to bet Kim Yong Nam is more in control anyway.
Nessie at 07:35 PM JST - 10th September

Dear leaders never die, they only become dearly departed.
smithinjapan at 08:57 PM JST - 10th September

bushlover: "So if power got passed to a General it automatically means the world is doomed? What kind of logic is that? Did Pakistan go to shiites when Mush was in power? Actually they are the ones that would hold it together more than if it were up to politicians exclusively unless they had a power struggle amongst themselves."

You're more of a fool than I thought, if you think that. NK is leaning towards collapse; has been for a long time. It's only a matter of time until it does, and when it does it can go one of two ways. The first is for a moderate to come into power and try to continue as old Kimmy has; relatively hollow threats in exchange for just enough to keep going. The second is far scarier -- an all out strike, to go out in style (well, 'all out' being as much as they can). I'm not saying it AUTOMATICALLY means the end (for Japan, anyway), but if it's a hard-liner, watch out! Imagine in particular if you get a leader that wants to be known as the 'war president' or something !

Hell, Kim may himself still yet want to go out in a blaze of glory.
Farmboy at 09:52 PM JST - 10th September

I don't know about this guy, but if you listened to the reports of Castro's failing health for the 20 years before his brother took over you'd begin to think this is a fun little game people like to play about leaders of disliked countries. Reports of the leader being sick or dead persist until the person shows up at the next gathering looking fine. It will be interesting to see if this is the case with Kim Jong Il.
some14some at 10:12 PM JST - 10th September

It will be interesting to see if this is the case with Kim Jong Il.

He is recovering according to AP, good news for Japan from abduction point of view.
OssanULTRA at 12:29 AM JST - 11th September

Frankly whether Kim passes away doesn't conern me so much as the passing away of the top NKorean generals who were around for the Korean War. Those guys at least still remember Korea as one country and I believe can empathioze with SKorea to some extent. It's the next generation of Generals in their 50s, born after the Korean War and who grew up entirely in the closed NKorean propaganda universe that really scares me. Those guys probably wouldn't bat an eyelash to start a war, or shoot a tourist.
adaydream at 01:38 AM JST - 11th September

It's called executive prividge. They'll tell us when they get ready to bury Kim. I'm sure we all understand that. < :-)
frontandcentre at 08:29 AM JST - 12th September

Since when does anyone regard anything 'official' from the DPRK and the word 'truth' in the same context? These delusional, brainwashed people are meaningless in the greater scheme of things.

Kim Jong Il, this evil pygmy, has lived a life of extreme decadence and tried to build enormously expensive weapons while he let children starve to death in the North Korean countryside. I don't wish him dead, but I hope his illness is long and very painful.