Report: Kim Well Enough To Brush His Teeth

N. Korean Leader, 66, Said To Be Lucid After Stroke But Details About His Health Remain Sketchy

(AP)  Officials believe North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has recovered enough from a stroke to brush his own teeth but that sporadic spasms forced him to skip his country's 60th anniversary celebrations, reports said Friday.

Kim, 66, is lucid and has no trouble speaking, according to a high-level Chinese official who met in recent weeks with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang, the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified source in Beijing.

But the Chinese official had predicted that Kim would miss Tuesday's anniversary ceremony, the official was quoted as saying. The report did not give further details.

Kim is the object of an intense personality cult in the totalitarian nation, and the sight of him with spasms before hundreds of thousands of people would have been an embarrassment for the regime.

The South Korean government has confirmed that Kim suffered a stroke but said he is recovering and remains in control of the country. South Korea's National Intelligence Service and the Unification Ministry said they could not comment on the Chosun Ilbo report.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed government official on Friday as saying the government understands Kim has recovered enough to brush his teeth on his own.

The spy agency and the Unification Ministry said they were aware of the Yonhap report but could not confirm it.

South Korean media have reported that Kim collapsed around Aug. 15. His absence from Tuesday's anniversary ceremony intensified speculation that the leader - long believed to be suffering from diabetes and heart disease - was seriously ill. He had been out of the public eye for weeks and foreign doctors were rumored to have been flown into Pyongyang to treat him.

But Seoul's presidential Blue House said Wednesday that Kim was not considered to be "in a serious condition."

Kim is "recovering fast," has no trouble communicating and speaking and is "able to stand if assisted," South Korean ruling party lawmaker Lee Cheol-woo said in a radio interview Thursday. Lee is a leader of the parliamentary intelligence committee, which was briefed by the spy agency the previous day.

North Korea's state media have made no mention of Kim's health. On Friday, the country's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a lengthy editorial calling for the impoverished population to unite behind Kim, who is revered as the "Dear Leader" or "Dear General."

"Our dignified republic exists because Dear General exists," the newspaper said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. "All party members and workers should further unite around the revolutionary leadership."

Kim's health has been a focus of intense interest because his fate is believed to be closely tied to that of the totalitarian state he has ruled since his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994.

Kim's health condition could further complicate six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament which recently hit a snag over how to verify the country's nuclear programs.

South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Kim Sook, told reporters Friday that Seoul officials were discussing the matter with their counterparts in the U.S. and China.

"We're carefully thinking about how this will affect the six-party talks," Kim said.

South Korea said last week that North Korea had begun restoring its nuclear facilities, apparently to protest delays by Washington in removing the North from a list of terrorism-sponsoring countries. North Korea stopped disabling its Yongbyon nuclear complex in mid-August.

The U.S. has said North Korea must agree to an international plan to verify the account of its nuclear programs it submitted in June if it wants to be removed from the terrorism list.

[tootall10142]

33 YEARS AGO I VOLUNTEERED TO ASSASINATE THE WORMY LITTLE DICTATOR AND THE MISSION WAS SCRAPPED.WHY I DONT KNOW AND WILL NEVER KNOW.I KNOW THIS , THEN I COULD HIT A WATERMELON AT ONE HALF A MILE.NOW WITH THE NEW SKYTAC WEAPONARY ANY ONE THAT CAN READ INSTRUCTIONS CAN HIT A GO;F BALL AT THAT DISTANCE.WHAT THIS COUNTRY IS WAITING FOR I DONT KNOW.THERE MUST LIE A REASON SOME WHERE OR THE US WOULDNT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY , BUT THEN THEY ARE NOT A OIL RICH NATION . IF WE FREE THEM WE GOT TO FEED THEM IS THE ONLY THING I CAN FIGURE.

[rational_1]

Brush his teeth? Hopefully with a brush made of moldy pubic hair.
Posted by salty1954 at 07:18 PM : Sep 13, 2008

Well given the North Korean economy, the peasants can only dream of such luxuries.

[salty1954]

Brush his teeth? Hopefully with a brush made of moldy pubic hair.

[karl2m]

when this guy dies, which is hopefully very soon, his communist regime will most likely collapse , and the full truth about this evil dictator will come out . It will be another embarrassment for bush and his friends, because it will be obvious for all to see that this myth of America being the protector of the oppressed, and the guardian of freedom and democracy in the world has become a sad joke. America protects its own interests, period. When America starts lecturing you about freedom and democracy, you''d better take care: it means you have something that America wants. if there is nothing that America wants from you , then there is no limit to how deeply it will let you down. Millions of people have died in the last decade while America didn''t lift a finger to stop it.(the congo wars, northern uganda, north Korea, liberia, sierra leone, etc..) In short: no president in history corrupted America''s values more then this one, and history will prove him to be an incompetent fool who did more to damage his own country then any foreign enemy has done during his presidency.

[usmcvn1]

The sooner this G*O*OK is gone, the better off the world will be. Useless commie **********. Just another neocon who the world don''t need.

[oneworldusa]

Well enough to brush one''s teeth after a month doesn''t sound very well to me. And that was probably an exaggeration to begin with.

[shanev137]

Anytime I see this moron I think about Bobby Lee from Mad TV doing an impression of him.

[downsteamjim]

I hope he uses a handgrenade to floss.

[fsw3]

Come on, what kind of all-powerful dictator is this? Doesn''t he have someone to brush his teeth for him? Comrade Chairman Mao Zedung didn''t brush his teeth at all. He didn''t take baths, either. Each night a young maiden was brought to him for s.e.x. Now, here''s a choice: Have S.E.X. with a man who never bathes nor brushes his teeth or, I guess go to a horrible prison labor camp. The girls had to think it over.

[yongamerica]

Kim being lucid and brushing his teeth isn''t saying much. Especially considering the fact he believes his mother is a Goddess of a lake and he himself is a God.