IRIB: Dear Leader ill-health rumors "conspiracy plot"

This is a big story in Iran, which gets its Songun missile technology from North Korea. So why didn't Kim show up at the parade? He was only giving invaluable Juche field-guidance to the doctors!

North Korea's number two on Wednesday denied reports that leader Kim Jong-Il was ill, Japan's Kyodo News reported.

"There are no problems," Kim Yong-Nam told Kyodo in Pyongyang.

He confirmed that Kim Jong-Il, 66, did not show up at a major parade Tuesday marking North Korea's 60th anniversary.

"While we wanted to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country with General Secretary Kim Jong-Il, we celebrated on our own," Kim Yong-Nam was quoted as saying.

An American intelligence official said Tuesday that Kim had apparently suffered a "health setback," possibly a stroke.

"We see such reports as not only worthless, but rather as a conspiracy plot," Song Il-Ho, North Korea's Ambassador handling relations with Japan, told Kyodo News separately.

"I believe the aim is to form a public opinion on something that is not true," Song was quoted as saying.

"Western media have reported falsehood before."

He doesn't just whistling the Dixie!

Tags: North Korea, Iran, DPRK, IRIB