North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (67), has pancreatic cancer, South Korean broadcaster YTN said today, citing information gathered from Chinese and South Korean intelligence sources.
The report raises questions about leadership in Asia's only communist dynasty and who will make decisions concerning its nuclear programmes.
Kim's health is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the reclusive state but he is widely thought to have suffered a stroke a year ago, although there has never been official confirmation.
YTN said the diagnoses of the cancer came around the same time as the stroke.
A gaunt Kim with thinning hair made a rare public appearance last Wednesday at a memorial for his father and state founder Kim Il-sung. The stark figure he cast furthered speculation he was still ill.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service could not immediately comment on the report, nor could US officials.
Kim Jong-il took power in 1994 when his father died at the age of 82. He assumed the title of general secretary of the ruling Workers' Party and chairman of the National Defence Commission but has never taken the title of president.
His youngest son Kim Jong-un, born in late 1983 or early 1984 and educated in Switzerland, is regarded as the most capable of Kim's three known sons with striking resemblance to his father.
If Jong-un were to take over soon, he is likely to remain weak, vulnerable and at the mercy of the North's old guard for years, experts said.
Reuters