North Korea's state media said on Thursday that recent news reports about its leader Kim Jong-il's health were false, in their first direct comment on the reclusive ruler's suspected illness. US and South Korean officials said last month Kim may have suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about leadership in Asia's only communist dynasty and who was making decisions about its nuclear arsenal.
"The army and people of the DPRK (North Korea) hold the prestige of their top leader dearer than their lives and will never tolerate any act of defaming it," the North's official KCNA news agency.
Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, the country's largest newspaper, reported at the weekend that North Korean diplomats have been told to stay close to their missions and await "an important message." The paper speculated that it may be an announcement about Kim's health. KCNA called the Japanese newspaper report "a whopping lie".
It said there had been no instructions to its diplomats to be on standby or any plan to issue an announcement, as Yomiuri reported. Japan's Sankei Shimbun also carried a similar report.
"What merits serious attention is that the two newspapers had temerity to let loose sheer sophism intended to hurt the dignity of the DPRK while talking about the 'abnormal health condition' of the top leader of the DPRK," KCNA said, calling the publications "reptile papers".
Kim's health is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the secretive state, which caused speculation about his condition to mount when he failed to appear at a triumphant military parade in September marking the founding of his communist country. North Korean officials in Pyongyang at that time were quoted by Japan's Kyodo news agency as saying Kim was well and reports about his illness were fabrications by those who wished to harm the state and its leader.
North Korean media earlier this month mentioned an appearance by Kim for the first time in about 50 days, saying he attended a university soccer game and it later released photographs of him inspecting a women's military unit. But the photographs fuelled more questions about his health because experts in the South said the pictures appeared to be taken a few months ago and before the August date when he was thought to have suffered a stroke. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in an interview published on Wednesday that Kim was still in control and there were no changes brought about due to his health.