North Korean reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il's health has further deteriorated and he can no longer walk without difficulty due to worsening diabetes, a South Korean lawmaker said.
Kim, 64, has long suffered from diabetes, kidney and liver problems and now has difficulty walking, said Chung Hyung-Keun, a longtime intelligence official now affiliated with the opposition Grand National Party.
"Kim has problems walking more than 30 meters at once and has to sit and rest [frequently]. Kim has been accompanied by an assistant with a chair," said Chung.
Chung served as an investigator for the anti-communism division of South Korea's intelligence agency throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. He is believed to have extensive intelligence sources on North Korea.
He has periodically revealed information on the secret society in the North since becoming a lawmaker in 1996. He is a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee.
Chung also said Kim Jong-Il's first son, Jong-Nam, has backing from the Chinese leadership to be North Korea's next leader. However, his maverick lifestyle has caused him to lose his father's favor, Chung said.
Kim Jong-Nam was arrested on arrival in Japan in 2001 for using a forged Dominican passport.
Jong-Nam is also involved in the North's missile sales, Chung said, citing sources.
He said the North Korean leader had gone to a top hospital in Beijing for treatment when he traveled to China in January. Kim and his close aides depend on treatment in foreign hospitals due to the North's inferior health care system.
Chung said he obtained the intelligence from "reliable sources" but refused to elaborate.
A diplomatic source in Seoul defended Chung's allegations, saying Kim's health conditions have recently worsened.
"There is information that Kim's health conditions are so poor that he cannot walk normally," the source said.
Seoul's Yonhap News Agency also said North Korea was having a new medicine clinically tested on two subjects in Russia for the ailing Kim Jong-Il. Two people who have the same physique, shape and age as Kim were staying at a hospital in Russia and receiving new medication for diabetes and heart disease, Yonhap said.
The information was revealed by Kim Seung-Gyu, director of the National Intelligence Service, at a recent parliamentary intelligence committee hearing, Yonhap said. Seoul's Unification Ministry declined to comment on Kim's health.
