Kim Jong Il

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang today, kicking off a three-day visit that could indicate whether reclusive North Korea will return to the negotiating table over its nuclear-weapons program. Chinese state media released photographs of Wen being greeted at Sunan International Airport by Kim, who was wearing his signature sunglasses and khaki suit. Kim's presence challenged speculation that he was losing his grip on the regime after reports that he was battling pancreatic cancer.

A simple question about Kim Jong Il's health provokes a torrent of angry, broken English. "It's a pack of lies," declared Oh Keum Suk. The 26-year-old North Korean tour guide jumped from his seat at a coffee shop and in an exaggerated motion stormed away. Then he turned on his heels to chew out the foreigner who had dared ask about reports that the North Korean leader had suffered a stroke. "Kim Jong Il is my father, my grandfather, my family. How do you talk about my family that way?"

North Korea's state news agency reported a public appearance by reclusive leader Kim Jong Il for the first time in nearly two months, an absence that prompted speculation he was seriously ill. Kim watched a university soccer game, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday. It did not mention his health or when he made the appearance. The 66-year-old leader had not been seen in public since mid-August. U.S.

North Korean dip- lomats abroad have been told to refrain from traveling and prepare for an "important announcement," Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported Saturday. The report prompted another round of speculation that North Korea's secretive leader, Kim Jong Il, has died or is incapacitated. The newspaper did not indicate when the announcement might be made. In recent weeks, Pyongyang had denied reports that the 66-year-old Kim was seriously ill after a stroke.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was absent from a high-level funeral, South Korean officials said Friday, fueling a new round of speculation on his medical condition. The 66-year-old failed to appear at the funeral of Pak Sung Chol this week, South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said at a news conference. Pak, 95, was considered the last of the communist state's first-generation revolutionaries.

For months, North Korea watchers have played a frustrating guessing game: Is leader Kim Jong Il healthy? Incapacitated? Or even dead? Many speculate that the reclusive 66-year-old has been sidelined by a stroke, while the government in Pyongyang continues to release undated photos showing an active Kim, sporting his trademark bouffant, at public events.

The way Son Hye Suk sees it, having nuclear weapons means more than security for this Stalinist state. It means North Koreans will have more food on their plates. "Our nuclear weapons are a source of great pride in our country, and if anyone insults us now they won't survive," said Son, an ideologically vetted worker at the International Friendship Museum north of the capital.

Riding dreams of Korean reunification and hoping to nudge history forward, South Korean President Roh Moo- hyun journeyed to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, today to open a three-day summit that drew the North's reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il, into a rare appearance before a global audience.

In his first known direct communication with the leader of North Korea, whom his administration has called a "tyrannical rogue," President Bush sent Kim Jong Il a hand-signed letter reminding him of his commitment to disclose the details of his country's nuclear weapons program by the end of the year, the White House said Thursday. The letter was one in a series Bush dispatched to the participants of the six-nation talks aimed at securing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has traveled to China on a rare trip outside his country, a South Korean military intelligence official said in Seoul. "We confirmed he went to China," the official said. "We don't know why." Kim, who seldom travels abroad, last visited China in April 2004 for a summit with Chinese leaders. North Korea and China, both communist countries, have traditionally had close ties. Chinese President Hu Jintao visited North Korea in October.