Mizzima News

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese military junta supremo Snr. Gen. Than Shwe on Monday sent a message of felicitation to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on his 67th birthday.

Kim Jong Il marks his 67th birthday on Monday amidst reports of ill-health, which led to speculation over the question of a possible succession and about who was making decisions on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

A report in the New York Times in December, citing US and South Korean officials, said the North Korean leader suffered a stroke in August 2008 but North Korean officials denied it calling the reports a western conspiracy to sabotage the government.

But the report said a French doctor had confirmed treating Kim and also confirmed that he had a stroke in August 2008.

"Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke but did not undergo an operation. He is now better," the report quoted Doctor François-Xavier Roux as saying.

Despite North Korea's denial of Kim's ill health, Kim has remained out of the public eye but made a come back when he met a senior Chinese Communist official on January 23.

Kim Jong Il, who is referred to as 'peerlessly great man' by the North Korean official media, is the second leader of North Korea since the country came into being in 1948. The first, President Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994, was the father of Kim Jong Il.

Than Shwe's message of felicitation to Kim by the Burmese head of state came after the two countries agreed to resume diplomatic ties in 2007. The two countries, often described by media reports as the world's two most reclusive countries, severed diplomatic ties in 1983 when North Korean agents triggered a bomb attack on the visiting South Korean President.

The attack, which targeted South Korean President Chan Doo-hwan, killed 17 South Korean officials including four cabinet ministers and four other Burmese officials. Chan Doo-hwan, however, escaped the attack.

But the two countries agreed to resume diplomatic ties in April 2007.

Both countries have been under western sanctions - Burma for its appalling human rights records and refusal to implement political reforms, and North Korea for its nuclear programme.

Kim Jong Il, according to the official version, was born on February 16, 1942, in a log cabin on Mount Paektu, the highest mountain on the Korean Peninsula. When he was born, the official version goes, the sky was brightened by a star and a double rainbow.