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The National Intelligence Service is checking rumors of the deteriorating health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a senior NIS official said Monday. The official said the rumors have been traced to close aides of the North Korean leader, which is also why U.S. intelligence authorities are trying to confirm whether they are true. Intelligence officials cite heart disease as a possible cause, pointing out that heart disease runs in families. Kim¡¯s father Kim Il-sung died from a heart attack in 1994. A doctor at Severance Hospital linked the North Korean leader¡¯s sudden disappearance from the public stage to a heart malfunction. ¡°I suspect Kim has heart failure,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ve recently read a foreign report that Kim suffers from short breath, fatigue and swellings.¡±
The North Korean leader last appeared in public at a ceremony for the 75th anniversary of the North Korean People's Army on April 25, wearing spectacles with transparent lenses instead of his favorite sunglasses. Experts say diabetes can cause complications on the retinas, causing patients to suffer from dim eyesight and lack of ability to distinguish colors. An eye doctor said diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes and its treatment inflicts dim eyesight, which could force a patient to wear glasses with transparent lenses. The North Korean leader is known to suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure like his late father.
The combination of diabetes and hypertension damages the blood vessels, hurting kidneys and the heart. Chronic renal failure is a malfunction of the kidneys in filtering poisonous matter and discharging urine, leading to swelling arms and feet and hair loss - symptoms Kim seems to be showing. After examining a recent picture of the North Korean leader, a doctor at Seoul National University Hospital suspected that Kim has palmar erythema, a reddening of skin on the palms that is a symptom of a liver disease. The doctor said transplant surgery is the only option for serious kidney failure and cirrhosis of the liver. However, it would be impossible for Kim to receive transplant surgery given North Korea¡¯s poor medical technology. Former NIS chief Kim Seung-kyu in parliamentary testimony earlier said the North Korean leader saw a doctor in Beijing during his visit to China in January last year.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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