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Kim Jong Il

South Korean media reported today that Kim Jong Il, the leader of North Korea, allegedly has a fatal form of cancer. A South Korean cable news channel, citing unnamed Chinese and South Korean intelligence sources, reported that that doctors diagnosed Kim with pancreatic cancer when he had a stroke, last August.

The highly secretive leader of the nuclear state appeared frail and sickly on state television in April, raising questions about his health.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said it could not confirm the report, and a unification ministry spokesman, Chun Hae-sung, told reporters he knew nothing of the claims. US officials contacted by Reuters were unable to comment.

Tensions on the peninsula have been running high in recent months, since the North’s nuclear and missile tests, making the stability of the regime a more pressing issue than ever.

Analysts initially suggested Pyongyang was seeking to grab the Obama administration’s attention and force the US to the negotiating table, but some now believe that it is more concerned with shoring up domestic support and ensuring a successful leadership transition.

Kim’s youngest son, 25-year-old Kim Jong-un, is said to have been chosen as his heir, but North Korea has made no such announcement.

Today’s report came a week after Kim attended an annual memorial for his late father, North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung. The appearance was only his second at a state event since his reported stroke last year.

While he looked thin and limped slightly, analysts said his attendance sent out the message that he was still in charge.

Daniel Pinkston, a senior analyst and expert on North Korea at the International Crisis Group, warned that Japanese media had floated many rumours about Kim’s health. He pointed out that the subject was so sensitive that a specific diagnosis of illness seemed “a little odd”, adding: “This kind of information would not be shared easily or casually.”

Patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer typically have a poor prognosis partly because the cancer usually causes no symptoms early on, leading to locally advanced or metastatic disease at time of diagnosis. Median survival from diagnosis is around 3 to 6 months; 5-year survival is less than 5%. With 37,170 cases diagnosed in the United States in 2007, and 33,700 deaths, pancreatic cancer has one of the highest fatality rates of all cancers and is the fourth highest cancer killer in the United States among both men and women. Although it accounts for only 2.5% of new cases, pancreatic cancer is responsible for 6% of cancer deaths each year.

The US National Cancer Institute puts the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer at 5.5%.

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Ten thousands of citizens gathered in Kim II Sung Square, as North Korea vowed to enlarge its atomic arsenal and warned of a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” in the event of a U.S. attack.

In Pyongyang, an estimated 100,000 rallyed in the main square, shouting “Let’s smash!” in unison while punching clenched fists in the air, footage from APTN in North Korea showed. A placard showed hands crushing a missile with “U.S.” written on it.

North Korea anti sanctions rally denounces US. Watch video.

The rally came a day after President Barack Obama extended U.S. economic sanctions against North Korea for another year, saying the North’s possession of “weapons-usable fissile material” and its proliferation risk “continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States, according to the White House Web site.

North Korea has organized massive rallies in the past.

North Korea’s “armed forces will deal an annihilating blow that is unpredictable and unavoidable, to any ’sanctions’ or provocations by the US,” Pak Pyong Jong, first vice chairman of the Pyongyang City People’s Committee, told the crowd.

State-run newspapers ran lengthy editorials accusing the U.S. of invading the country in 1950 and of looking for an opportunity to attack again. The editorials said those actions justified North Korea’s development of atomic bombs to defend itself.

The North “will never give up its nuclear deterrent … and will further strengthen it” as long as Washington remains hostile, Pyongyang’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.

The new U.N. resolution—passed to punish Pyongyang after its May 25 nuclear test—seeks to clamp down on North Korea’s trading of banned arms and weapons-related material by requiring U.N. member states to request inspections of ships carrying suspicious cargo.

North Korea has said it would consider any interception of its ships a declaration of war.

A senior South Korean government official said the ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

The Defense Department says it is prepared if North Korea test fires another ballistic missile. The Reports coming from Asia are saying that the missile test may launch July 4th aimed at Hawaii.

Watch Video

June 14, 2009 – In defiance of new U.N. sanctions, North Korea is promising to increase its atomic bomb-making program while threatening a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula.

On Saturday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry threatened war on any country that dared to stop its ships on the high seas under the new sanctions approved by the U.N. Security Council on Friday as punishment for the North’s latest nuclear test.

While Barack Obama is preparing for talks Tuesday with South Korean regarding the North’s missile and nuclear programs, this defiance has to be viewed aa serious threat and dealt with accordingly. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told security-related ministers during an unscheduled meeting Sunday to “resolutely and squarely” cope with the North’s latest threat, his office said. Lee is to leave for the U.S. on Monday morning.

A commentary Sunday in the North’s main state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, claimed the U.S. has 1,000 nuclear weapons in South Korea. Another commentary published Saturday in the state-run Tongil Sinbo weekly claimed the U.S. has been deploying a vast amount of nuclear weapons in South Korea and Japan.

North Korea “is completely within the range of U.S. nuclear attack and the Korean peninsula is becoming an area where the chances of a nuclear war are the highest in the world,” the Tongil Sinbo commentary said.

Kim Yong-kyu, a spokesman at the U.S. military command in Seoul, called the latest accusation “baseless,” saying Washington has no nuclear bombs in South Korea. U.S. tactical nuclear weapons were removed from South Korea in 1991 as part of arms reductions following the Cold War.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry issued a statement Sunday demanding the North stop stoking tension, abandon its nuclear weapons and return to dialogue with the South.

On Saturday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry threatened war on any country that dared to stop its ships on the high seas under the new sanctions approved by the U.N. Security Council on Friday as punishment for the North’s latest nuclear test.

It is not clear if the statements are simply rhetorical. Still, they are a huge setback for international attempts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions following its second nuclear test on May 25. It first tested a nuclear device in 2006.

In Saturday’s statement, North Korea said it has been enriching uranium to provide fuel for its light-water reactor. It was the first public acknowledgment the North is running a uranium enrichment program in addition to its known plutonium-based program. The two radioactive materials are key ingredients in making atomic bombs.

On Sunday, Yonhap news agency reported South Korea and the U.S. have mobilized spy satellites, reconnaissance aircraft and human intelligence networks to obtain evidence that the North has been running a uranium enrichment program.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report. The National Intelligence Service – South Korea’s main spy agency – was not available for comment.

North Korea said more than one-third of 8,000 spent fuel rods in its possession has been reprocessed and all the plutonium extracted would be used to make atomic bombs. The country could harvest 13-18 pounds (6-8 kilograms) of plutonium – enough to make at least one nuclear bomb – if all the rods are reprocessed.

In addition, North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its regime. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention.

The new U.N. sanctions are aimed at depriving the North of the financing used to build its rogue nuclear program. The resolution also authorized searches of North Korean ships suspected of transporting illicit ballistic missile and nuclear materials.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the new U.N. penalties provide the necessary tools to help check North Korea’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The sanctions show that “North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and the capacity to deliver those weapons through missiles is not going to be accepted by the neighbors as well as the greater international community,” Clinton said Saturday at a news conference in Canada.

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