Pancreatic cancer for Nork leader?

NY Times:

The North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who suffered a stroke last August, was also found to have “life-threatening” pancreatic cancer at about the same time, a South Korean cable television network reported on Monday.

The network, YTN, a cable news channel, quoted unidentified Chinese and South Korean intelligence sources for the report, which was made by YTN’s Beijing-based correspondent.

YTN did not explain how the sources obtained such medical information about Mr. Kim from North Korea, an isolated nuclear-armed state that historically has kept details of Mr. Kim’s health a closely guarded secret.

But if the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is true, he may not have much longer to live. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to detect early, it spreads rapidly and the fatality rate is high. The World Health Organization says fewer than 5 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer live longer than five years.

Although Mr. Kim began making occasional public appearances a few months after he mysteriously disappeared last August, photographs of him and television images recently carried by the North Korean media showed him limping and frail.

Mr. Kim’s loss of weight, in particular, has elevated speculation about the severity and nature of what is wrong with him.

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His death would likely not effect the regime in the short run. It would only change if his son and heir tried to exert himself. The chances of that are unknown because he is mostly unknown too. What usualy happens in totalitarian societies is those at the top try to pick a ruler that will continue policies that benefit them.

It does look like government health care was not up to the task of treating him and they had to bring in an outside expert. I note that Castro did the same thing. It is not very communist of them.