NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Il has life-threatening pancreatic cancer, a news report said yesterday, days after fresh images of him looking gaunt spurred speculation that his health was worsening following a reported stroke last year.

North Korea said it will not give up its nuclear weapons until after the US alters its “hostile policy” toward it's government and proves it does not pose an atomic threat to the wartime rival.

NORTH KOREA barred UN nuclear inspectors from its main nuclear reactor yesterday and within a week plans to reactivate the plant that once provided the plutonium for its atomic test explosion, the chief UN nuclear inspector said.

A North Korean diplomat denied today that leader Kim Jong Il was ill, calling widespread speculation about the leader’s health troubles “nonsense spread by bad people”.