Two North Korean medical teams in charge of looking after leader
Kim Jong-il's health were secretly trained in brain disease-related
rehabilitation in Singapore last year, the Kyodo news agency
reported Monday.
The teams "consisted mostly of women who looked about 30 years old.
The Singaporean
government accepted the North's request for their training and let
them enter Singapore," it quoted a source as
saying.
The two North Korean medical teams received a month of intensive
training at the internal medicine and surgery departments of a
Singaporean hospital.
The North chose Singapore because healthcare is considered the best
in Southeast Asia, the news agency added. The North has an embassy
in Singapore.
Kim had surgery after a stroke in August 2008. He lost weight
dramatically and has had trouble using his left hand since. He
missed a military parade on the 60th anniversary of the regime on
Sept. 9 that year.
This year, two French doctors reportedly visited the North and
examined Kim.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/10/11/2011101100490.html
The North Korean regime routinely
photoshopped images of leader Kim Jong-il to cover up dark spots on
his cheeks.
A South Korean government official said Monday, "Until last year,
we believed Kim Jong-il had dark spots removed from his
face. But
we've recently obtained a lot of evidence showing that the regime
is photoshopping mugshots."
The clue was in photos of Kim in the Chinese media. A South Korean
security official said, "All photos provided by the Chinese press
show images of him with a face full of liver spots on his cheeks,
while those released by North Korean media show a smooth skin
tone."
The most
conspicuous picture was shown on CCTV and features Kim in Yangzhou
in the Chinese province of Jiangsu on May 23. But in a photo
released on May 28 by the North's state-run Korean Central News
Agency, which it claimed shows Kim inspecting Huichon Power
Station, he has no liver spots on his face. Another image shows him
inspecting a fish farm on June 2, again without liver
spots.
But in a photo taken by a Xinhua news agency cameraman, which shows
Kim meeting with Chinese official Li Yuanchao in Pyongyang on June
13, he has liver spots again.
On his July 6 visit to Sinam Cooperative Farm in North Pyongan
Province, the KCNA seems to have photoshopped his skin clean
again.
But in a picture released by Chinese media on July 12, he has dark
spots on his face again.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/08/23/2011082300335.html