Kim Jong-il calls reports of his ill health "fiction"

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (R) and South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun toast during the farewell luncheon after they exchanged the joint statement in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, October 4, 2007.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Thursday denied he was in bad health, saying reports of him showing sign of illness were the work of "fiction writers."

Kim, 65, has been the subject of persistent speculation in the South about his health, and his less-than-robust appearance at a summit meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun this week triggered more rumors that he may be seriously ill.

"They are reporting as if I have diabetes and even heart disease, but that's not the case at all," Kim said at a luncheon he hosted for the visiting South Korean leader.

Kim said his country had invited foreign physicians to help with its lagging research in heart surgery, in an apparent reference to reports earlier this year that a team of German doctors had flown to Pyongyang to perform surgery on him.

"I make a little move and that gets huge coverage," Kim said. "It seems like they're fiction writers, not journalists."

The reclusive Kim's actual condition is one of the secretive state's most tightly guarded secrets, but that has not stopped a steady cottage industry of trying to guess from what he might be suffering through the few video and photographs of him released to the outside world.

Shedding the dour demeanor when he welcomed Roh on Tuesday, Kim warmed up as the three-day summit progressed and was cheerful enough to raise his glass of wine as he mingled with dozens of South Korean guests at the luncheon.

"It doesn't feel that bad that I'm getting big coverage (in the South.)"