Reports on Kim's health are false, says Pyongyang

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) state media said yesterday that recent news reports about Kim Jong-il's health were false, in their first direct comment on its supreme leader's suspected illness.

US and ROK officials said last month Kim may have suffered a stroke in August.

"The army and people of the DPRK hold the prestige of their top leader dearer than their lives and will never tolerate any act of defaming it," the DPRK official KCNA news agency.