SEOUL (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has cancer and may not live more than five years, a South Korean cable news channel reported on Monday.
Seoul's unification ministry said it had no information on the YTN report, which came days after Kim, 67, appeared on television looking gaunt.
The TV news channel said the leader of the isolated nuclear-armed nation was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer around the time of his suspected stroke last August.
It cited intelligence sources in Seoul and Washington.
YTN, quoting medical sources in Beijing, said Kim may not live more than five years given the high mortality rate for such a cancer and his advanced age.
Seoul's National Intelligence Service said it could not confirm the report, which came three days after Japanese TV network TBS reported Kim is suffering from a "serious disorder" of the pancreas.
TBS reported that Kim has been resting and is being treated at his villa in the southeastern area of Wonsan by a team of specialists.
Kim's health is the subject of intense international attention since there has been no announcement to the outside world about who would succeed him.
Tensions between the hardline communist state and the international community are currently high over its missile and nuclear programmes.
US and South Korean officials believe the apparently ailing leader is staging a show of strength to bolster his authority as he tries to put in place a succession plan.
Seoul intelligence officials have been quoted as saying that Kim has nominated his youngest son Jong-Un, 26, as his successor.
State TV last week showed Kim limping slightly and with thinning hair when he made a televised appearance to pay homage to his late father Kim Il-Sung at a national memorial service.
There has been intense speculation about the future leadership of the hardline communist state since Kim's reported stroke.
Kim, who has a history of diabetes and heart problems, has resumed most of his duties but looks noticeably older and more gaunt.
He succeeded his father as North Korea's absolute leader after the elder Kim died of a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 82, to create the first dynasty in the communist world.
Kim formally took office only in 1997, three years after his father's death, but he had been groomed for the leadership for two decades.
The two Kims are the subject of an all-embracing personality cult. Kim Il-Sung was declared president for eternity after he died.
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