Important N. Korea news is expected

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.

When the nation’s founder and father of the present leader, Kim Il Sung, died in 1994, North Korean officials were told to stand by for an important announcement.

But North Korea experts said Saturday that the announcement could be related to other international matters. Pyongyang has been expected for some time to schedule a congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, an event that could be used to announce a new economic policy as well as to clear up uncertainty about the succession of power. The last such event was the sixth party congress in 1980, when Kim Jong Il was officially designated his father’s successor.

“They are overdue to hold a party congress to announce a new generation of leaders and a new economic policy,” said Leonid Petrov, a North Korea expert, speaking from Dandong, China, at the border with North Korea.

Another possibility is that North Korea is preparing to break off communications with South Korea because of tensions with a new conservative government in Seoul.

Although North Korea blocks its citizens from receiving foreign news reports, rumors of Kim’s poor health have been spreading in the country, causing anxiety about the future.

Kim has no obvious successor, with three sons and other relatives and party cadres all vying for power. Experts believe that Kim’s death could trigger a violent power struggle within or even lead to the collapse of the regime.

Trying to project an image of stability, North Korea this month released photographs showing a healthy-looking Kim inspecting a military unit. But analysts say the foliage in the background of the photographs suggests they were taken in the summer.

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barbara.demick@latimes.com