[imText1]A North Korean tradesmen who has a business in Shinuiju as well as a multitude of sources relayed on the 19th that the news of Kim Jong Il contracting a severe illness is secretly spreading in Pyongyang and in the North Korea-China border region.
A day ago, Mr. Hong, a tradesman who came out to Dandong, China, while meeting a Chinese trader at a restaurant said, “Enterprise traders who are in Shinuiju are worried about the General’s health. His health is not just unwell, the word is that it is severe.”
Mr. Hong said, “Merchants who trade abroad cannot help but be sensitive to politics. If a huge disaster strikes the country, there is immediately a problem with traffic. We cannot help but worry.” He also expressed, “Through trade office advisors or party leaders coming and going from Pyongyang, the news is surreptitiously spreading.”
Mr. Hong said that he of course fully knew information from Chinese traders that Kim Jong Il recovered from his surgery. He said that besides information flowing from the outside, but rumors of the “severe illness of Kim Jong Il” has continuously leaked out from inside North Korea. He specifically named Pyongyang as the origin of such news.
Analysts predicted that in the case that the news of Kim Jong Il contracting a severe illness spreads within North Korea, its influence can extend to the society.
Further, another North Korean inside source said in a phone conversation, “After March of last year, the deterioration of Kim Jong Il’s condition started leaking out from Pyongyang.”
The source said, “Sometime between March and April of last year, Kim Jong Il visited the training headquarters of Pyongyang Capital Defense, but according to witnesses, could not climb the stairs by himself, so officials escorting him had to lend him a hand. There were only 15-20 steps, so the stairs were not even very high. After this event, the news of Kim Jong Il contracting a severe illness started to spread rapidly.”
Also, Mr. Kim, a Korean-Chinese who drives a taxi in Longjing in Jilin, China said in a phone conversation on the same day, “The news of Kim Jong Il’s illness has continuously appeared on South Korean TV, informing North Korean people.”
He also said, “I ask North Koreans who have come on visits to relatives, ‘Do you know anything about Kim Jong Il receiving a surgery, which is what South Korean TV has been reporting?’ but most do not respond. Occasionally, there are people who quietly say that they heard about his illness in North Korea.”
On one hand, a domestic information specialist said, “We think that rumors have spread in North Korea. However, because Kim Jong Il is still getting along, such news alone will not bring about a significant change.”
