North Korean diplomat says Kim not ill: Kyodo

TOKYO (Reuters) - A senior North Korean diplomat on Wednesday denied media reports suggesting North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is ill, calling it a "conspiracy plot", Kyodo news agency reported.

"We see such reports as not only worthless, but rather as a conspiracy plot," the agency reported Song Il-ho, North Korea's main negotiator in normalization talks with Japan, as saying.

"I believe the aim is to form a public opinion on something that is not true," Kyodo reported him as saying. "Western media have reported falsehood before."

(Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Rodney Joyce)