Kim Jong Il Near Death?

Could well be.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il may be gravely ill, perhaps the victim of a stroke, U.S. and other Western officials said Tuesday after he failed to appear for a major national parade. If so, it could jeopardize the already troubled international effort to get his nation to abandon nuclear weapons.

Kim's absence from a military parade for the country's 60th anniversary lent credence to reports that the man North Koreans call the "Dear Leader" had been incapacitated during the past few weeks.

The 66-year-old Kim, who has been rumored to be in varying degrees of ill health for years, has not been seen since mid-August. Though he appears rarely in public and his voice is seldom broadcast, Kim has shown up for previous landmark celebrations.

"There is reason to believe Kim Jong Il has suffered a serious health setback, possibly a stroke," one Western intelligence official said. A senior U.S. official said fresh rumors had been circulating about Kim's health and his control over North Korea's highly centralized government.

A former CIA official with recent access to intelligence on North Korea said that even before Tuesday the agency was confident that reports of a health crisis were accurate.

It was just a couple days ago a report surfaced saying he actually died in 2003.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has been out of the public eye recently and one expert on the country says he has a very good reason -- he died five years ago.

And, says Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Japan's Waseda University, his place has been taken by several stand-ins controlled by four high-ranking "puppet-masters."

Kim, a former smoker and heavy drinker, died in 2003 from diabetes, said Prof. Shigemura in a new book The True Character of Kim Jong Il.

Prof. Shigemura's theory received wide publicity yesterday while other reports were circulating that the North Korean leader was believed to be very ill.

I suspect we won't be seeing much of this freak again.

I wonder if his pals Jimmy Carter and Madeleine Albright will travel over to pay their respects?