Published: Thursday July 16, 2009 MYT 12:56:00 PM
NKorea starts making 1st biopic about leader Kim
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea has started making its first documentary about Kim Jong Il's life amid renewed speculation about the 67-year-old leader's health.
The retrospective film would be a rare acknowledgment that Kim is getting on in years. South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper noted Thursday that the regime began producing a similar 20-part film about Kim's late father, national founder Kim Il Sung, in 1993 - a year before he died of heart failure.
The younger Kim is the subject of an intense personality cult that he inherited from his father. Talk of his health is considered a taboo in the totalitarian nation, and North Korean officials have strongly denied reports the leader suffered a stroke.
Pyongyang's state media said Wednesday that the country has produced the first part of a Kim Jong Il film that "will comprehensively deal with the immortal 'songun' (military first) revolutionary exploits performed by" Kim.
The first part is about Kim's birth and youth, it said.
It is the first time the North has produced such a film about Kim, though the regime has made a number of documentaries about his public activities, Seoul's Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said Thursday.
But she declined to comment on what the new film might signify about Kim's health.
Since 1994, Kim has ruled the impoverished communist nation of 24 million with absolute authority, leading to concerns his death could trigger chaos or a power struggle if he dies without naming a successor.
A South Korean TV report recently said Kim - believed to have suffered a stroke last August - also has "life-threatening" pancreatic cancer and won't last more than five years.
However, some analysts questioned the YTN television report, saying Kim's brisk public appearances this year make it unlikely he has cancer.
North Korean state media released new images Tuesday of Kim touring a tile factory in which he appears thin but no worse than in other recent photographs. The latest factory visit brings the total number of such trips this year to 82, compared with 57 visits during the same period last year, according to the Unification Ministry.
State TV on Wednesday also aired an hourlong documentary about Kim's February activities.
Kim, known to be reclusive, rarely appears live on television. However, he made a televised appearance last week in which he looked markedly thinner, his hair noticeably thinning. He also limped slightly, and his smile appeared lopsided - possibly a side effect of a stroke.
The images touched off speculation that Kim, suspected of suffering from chronic diabetes and heart problems, could have other health worries as well.-AP
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