Health of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il Rumored to Worsen
by Richardson ~ June 10th, 2007. Filed under: Kim Jong-il. 
Closely following a report on Kim Jong-il’s reportedly deteriorating health from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS – roughly equivalent to the U.S. CIA) late last month, is this report pointing to heart problems and offering a few more details:
Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s reclusive leader, has been so unwell that he could not walk more than 30 yards without a rest, western governments have been told.
Diplomats in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, are increasingly convinced that the 65-year-old dictator needs heart surgery to restore his apparently flagging health. He has had to be accompanied by an assistant carrying a chair so that, wherever he goes, he can sit and catch his breath.
Speculation about the state of Kim’s health was heightened when a team of six doctors from the German Heart Institute in Berlin flew to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, for eight days last month. Kim, who also suffers from diabetes…
[. . .]
Kim’s public appearances have been curtailed this year and he has appeared in public only 23 times, compared with 42 times at the same point last year - an indication, observers say, of his declining health. The suggestion that he underwent an operation offered an apparent explanation for his recent month-long disappearance from public view.
His illness may also explain why Kim has appeared keen to tackle the question of his succession, putting two of his sons through their paces to decide which is best suited to take over.
He is reported to have taken Jong Chul, 26, and Jong Woon, 23, on a series of military inspections to ascertain who performed best. His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 36, is out of favour after being deported from Japan six years ago for trying to enter the country on a forged passport.
Some observers predict, however, that his eventual death might be followed by a collective leadership by military figures, ending his family’s dynastic power over the impoverished communist state and paving the way for it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and open up to the rest of the world. (emphasis added)
Speculation concerning the German doctors appears to be false:
German Heart Institute Berlin denied a report in a Japanese weekly that its doctors performed a heart bypass on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang last month.
A team of six doctors from the institute traveled to North Korea from between May 11 and 19 to operate on three laborers, a nurse and a scientist, Barbara Nickolaus, a spokeswoman at the institute, said in a telephone interview today.
My firm assessment is that Kim Jong-il will eventually die (heh). More on this when and if it becomes available.
June 10th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Naturally rumours like this get blown out of proportion. As a 65 year-old man he is going to get ill but as Castro has shown that doesn’t mean much in today’s world. What’s interesting is that by this time under Kim Il-sung a cult of personality around Kim Jong-il had already begun to be implemented. Currently there is nothing similar of notable mention around any of Kim Jong-il’s sons. This could therefore mean that Kim is reforming North Korea the only way he knows he can do without jeopordising his own safety - waiting for himself to die so his successor is not burdened with the unreformable society that Kim Il-sung left him. Of course North Korea would be even more reformable if his successor was not a family member at all.
June 10th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I am also wondering why the sons have not been in the propaganda and grooming the people with the cult of personality addition.
June 10th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
in order to perpetuate the lie… it’ll be necessary to have one of kji’s sons to succeed him. even the military and the elites know, they alone can’t deceive the masses without the mythical figure.
must remember that the official religion of dprk is.. kis, kji, and soon to be kjc or jw..
June 10th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
It’s worth remembering that Kim Jong-il actually built much of the ideological infrastructure that he eventually inherited, from the 1960s on.
As for his sons, I’ll go out on a limb and say that if one of them rules after Kim Jong-il, it will be Jong-eun, the youngest. I say this b/c I think Jong-nam has sort of blown that, and Jong-chol has been described as being too effeminate, while Jong-eun is said to be a chip off the old block. For years many thought he was too young, but it’s been so many years since those predictions that he’s now older than Jong-chol was at the time. Hopefully KJI will die soon and we’ll all find out.
June 10th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
In my opinion, if the death is sudden and one of the sons have not been groomed or power or “educated” enough to take the healm, I am sure others may try to take over. I can see a huge power struggle within the regime.
I simply cannot see a smooth transition. I am just hoping his death will spell the end of the regime. But maybe I am just dreaming too much.
June 11th, 2007 at 3:53 am
Jack; considering that some kind of internal power struggle actually followed the death of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung, I find it likely that an even more intense one would follow the death of the Dear Leader. Kim Il Sung was and probably is, despite all propaganda - considered a much more important and legendarious person than Kim Jong Il, and if people actually dared to deem themselves worthy followers of him, even more people would probably dare to do so when KJI dies. That’s just my theory…
/Benjamin
June 11th, 2007 at 5:51 am
http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk00100&num=2133
The Daily NK had an interesting article up with North Korean defectors and others saying the likely reason Kim Jong Il hasn’t groomed anybody yet was because he didn’t want a replacement to do to him what he did to his father —- that he did not want to release any power to anybody else and be made a “scarecrow” in his last years.
In traditional Korean society, the king would often seek to shirk the pressure of the Censorate and neo-Confucian bureaucracy by giving way to the crown prince with the idea being the strong theme of respecting elders, particularly your father, would allow the king to continue to dominate state affairs behind the scenes.
I guess Kim Jong Il doesn’t trust just how Confucian-oriented the society remains…..
June 11th, 2007 at 7:14 am
“Diplomats in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, are increasingly convinced that the 65-year-old dictator needs heart surgery to restore his apparently flagging health. He has had to be accompanied by an assistant carrying a chair so that, wherever he goes, he can sit and catch his breath.”
I’m not a cardiologist, but based on my own senior family members’ health problems, I’d say his lack of endurance for simple activities is caused by one of four things: 1) COPD (chronic lung damage usually caused by long-term smoking; 2) a severe heart attack that has damaged much heart muscle; 3) heart failure, often brought on after a heart attack; or 4) heart valve problems, which have many causes. The fact that heart doctors were flown in does not necessary mean that the health problem is heart-related, rather than COPD. My mom’s COPD was diagnosed after doctors performed a series of tests to rule out any cardiac problems. Among the above problems, only valve problems can be fixed by surgery. COPD and severe heart failure can be relieved through transplants, but I can’t see a man too scared to fly in an airplane being willing to undergo such a procedure.
June 11th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
My dad’s issue is a weak heart that can’t pump away the fluid enough at times. His father had the same problem. The shots get the body to pump the fluid out, but eventually the weak heart lets the fluid build up faster and faster, and eventually the shots don’t work, or, the other organs shut down. It is thus a matter of timing.
A heart transplant earlier might have added the strength and years but at some point becomes impossible.
The not being able to walk 10 yards without resting was common for both of them. (My dad also needs oxygen most of the time).
Another commonality - and with Kim Jong Il - after a shot, when the fluid is gone, they appear just like their old selves…
June 11th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I’ll guess that when KJI gets to the point he can’t walk 10’ w/o resting, he may opt for a transplant or three. Probably no shortage of ‘donor’ organs for the Dear Leader, considering his luck in the lotto and golf, should he decide to go that route.
June 11th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
It sounds like your dad has heart failure, USinKorea. I recall you writing about your father’s illness before. My prayers to him and your family.
June 11th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
This part is interesting:
“Some observers predict, however, that his eventual death might be followed by a collective leadership by military figures, ending his family’s dynastic power over the impoverished communist state and paving the way for it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and open up to the rest of the world. (emphasis added)”
For some reason I doubt the NK Military would be so interested in abandoning the crown jewel of its weapons inventory. For as much as we may fear Kim, there are figures in the military that would worry me much, much more.
June 11th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Thanks Sonagi.
With my dad’s heart, and his father before him, the weakness had gotten to the point doctors would not consider a transplant, but I doubt North Korea would have a problem finding some quality doctors in the world who would do his, regardless of the chance of failure, due to the amount of blood-soaked Euros Pyongyang can throw into the operation.
I have a strong feeling, when Kim Jong Il goes, whatever the power elite manage to work out or don’t, the society will finally be triggered into acting in a major way. I think it will be a bloodbath.
June 12th, 2007 at 1:07 am
[…] Kim Jong-Il’s health has reportedly deteriorated to the point where he cannot walk more than 30 yards without having to sit down, or at least some sources say so. [Link] […]
June 12th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Sounds like the South Park boys better get the Kim cut-out ready for the “Kim in Hell” episodes. Some possibilities:
“The One Where the Cute Asian Guy Moves In” Saddam gets jealous when a new arrival takes more and more of Satan’s time…
or
“The One Where Kim Get Owned” Kim tries to take advantage of growing tensions in Satan and Saddam’s relationship, but the true strenght of their love prevails, and Kim finds himself on the outs…
Ha!
June 14th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Did you see today’s news reports claiming that the German medical team performed an angioplasty on KJI back in May?