South Korea denies plot report against Kim Jong-il

SEOUL, Jan 26 (Reuters) South Korean officials today denied a report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il might be ill or that the military had plotted against him.

The report by Japan's Jiji Press, quoting a source in South Korea, said he may be under house arrest at his villa in Wonsan on the east coast of the secretive communist country.

''We know of nothing to back it up,'' a Unification Ministry official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. ''There are no unusual circumstances.'' A South Korean intelligence source told Reuters the Jiji report had ''no credibility''.

In Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, asked about the report, said: ''We have not heard information of that kind''.

Diplomatic officials in Pyongyang, contacted by telephone, said there were no signs of unusual activity on the streets of the impoverished country's capital.

On Sunday, the North's official KCNA news agency reported Kim had given field guidance at a power station. Kim also visited factories and military camps last week, according to KCNA, which did not specify the actual time he made the trips.

A diplomatic source in Tokyo with close ties to North Korea said there were no ''abnormal movements'' in North Korea, adding that such rumours had been circulating since January 10.

Another said some South Koreans linked to political parties opposed to improving ties between North and South were spreading such rumours.

A diplomatic source in Pyongyang, contacted by telephone from Beijing, said he had heard the rumours but they were not accurate and appeared to have come from a South Korean source.

He said there was no evidence of any change on the streets of Pyongyang.

REUTERS PDS RN0743