The North is also seeking to bring in an emergency helicopter, the South's largest-selling daily Chosun Ilbo reported.

Kim is widely believed to have suffered a stroke last August but there was no confirmation of the latest report. The National Intelligence Service declined to comment.

Chosun said Pyongyang's Ponghwa Hospital is treating the 67-year-old.

It said officials of the hospital who are based in Beijing are trying to buy medical equipment which has been banned under an embargo imposed in 2006 to punish the North's first nuclear test.

The UN resolution does not ban the import of medical equipment, only items which could be related to weapons programmes.

"Kim's illness appears to be serious," a North Korean source in Beijing told the newspaper.

The North's policy has grown notably harder-line this year, with a long-range rocket launch in April and a second nuclear test in May.

Analysts say the leader is projecting an image of strength to bolster his authority as he prepares one of his sons for a takeover.

South Korea's intelligence services have been told that Kim has nominated 26-year-old Jong-Un -- the youngest -- to succeed him, a South Korean lawmaker briefed by intelligence officials said this month.

earlier related report
NKorea says sanctions only harden will to build military
North Korea said Saturday UN sanctions would not work on the communist state but only harden its will to build up its military.

Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the North's ruling communist party, said the sanctions would not hurt the country which has a "self-reliant economy," warning the moves would meet unspecified retaliatory steps.

"It is ridiculous and contemptible for enemy forces to clamour for toughening sanctions and blockade against us," the daily said.

"This would not even hurt a hair of the people who have been living a self-sustaining life, living with their own means on their own land," it said.

North Korea would respond to "rifle shots with gun shots, gun shots with missiles and nuclear weapons with nuclear weapons."

"Our determination to strengthen our self-defensive military power hundreds of thousand folds is becoming firmer day after day," it said in a lengthy commentary titled "The nature of the Korean people."

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high since Pyongyang carried out its second nuclear test last month.

After the underground test and subsequent missile launches, the Security Council adopted a UN resolution last week that includes financial sanctions designed to choke off revenue to the regime.

North Korea had already vowed to build more bombs and to start a new weapons programme based on uranium enrichment in response to the sanctions.

In Washington, a US defence official said Friday that a US Navy destroyer was tracking a North Korean ship possibly carrying banned cargo as part of international efforts to enforce the UN sanctions.

The USS John S. McCain was shadowing the vessel, the Kang Nam, the first ship to be monitored under a UN resolution imposed a week ago that bans arms shipments to and from North Korea, the official said.

Pentagon officials declined to comment on a television report the Navy destroyer was heading to intercept the North Korean vessel.

The officials stressed that the UN sanctions do not authorise military force and that Washington was pursuing a diplomatic strategy.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com