Heir Apparent in N. Korea Reported Hurt

The leader of South Korea’s main opposition party said today that Communist North Korea’s heir apparent, Kim Jong Il, has been seriously injured.

The report could not be independently confirmed, and South Korean officials cast doubt on its substance.

Lee Ki Taek, head of the opposition Democratic Party, told Korean reporters in a briefing that he had been told by “a foreign figure” that Kim Jong Il had suffered serious physical injury. He did not elaborate on his source.

Steven Rounds, information officer for the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, said embassy officials had met with Lee recently. But “we are not the source for Lee’s statement,” he said.

“Periodic rumors about deaths and injuries of North Korean leaders flow through Seoul regularly,” Rounds said.

Kim, the son of Communist leader Kim Il Sung and the No. 2 leader in the reclusive totalitarian nation, celebrated his 52nd birthday this week. He is referred to as the “Dear Leader.”

“I was told that Kim Jong Il was injured seriously so as not to take over political power,” the opposition leader told reporters.

Lee said he had been told by the source that the injury was not illness but “an accident . . . like a traffic accident or shooting.”

The Agency for National Security, South Korea’s spy agency, said the report could not be confirmed and that it considered it a rumor.

Officials at the Foreign and Unification ministries also said they distrusted the report.