Japanese state-run broadcaster NHK reports that when Kim Jong-il met with then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang in 2002 the North Korean leader said he was afraid his country would become like Iraq.

Kim is also believed to have said he cannot surrender the country's nuclear activities for the sake of the regime's survival.

The new revelations surfaced after NHK claimed it had obtained a highly classified document detailing the exchange between Koizumi and Kim.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-il is very healthy and foreign media reports about his youngest son Jong-un as heir apparent are only rumors, according to a senior North Korean military official who spoke to Japanese journalists in China.