FACTBOX: Kim Jong-il, North Korea's wily and reclusive leader

(Reuters) - Speculation was rife about the health of Kim Jong-il, the supreme leader of secretive North Korea, after he missed the country's anniversary parade on Tuesday and a U.S. intelligence official said he may have suffered a stroke.

Here are some facts about Kim:

* Kim, 66, inherited control in 1994 upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, the founder of the reclusive communist state. Praised at home for near-divine wisdom and talents, Kim has frustrated major powers during protracted talks about disabling North Korea's nuclear program.

* The health of the "Dear Leader" is an official secret but he is suspected of having an ailing heart and illnesses related to his fondness for fine wine and brandy.

* According to North Korean state media, Kim boasts a photographic memory, has piloted jet fighters, composed operas and hit 11 holes-in-one in the first round of golf he ever played.

* Officially, Kim was born at a secret anti-Japanese guerrilla camp near Paektu-san, a now-revered mountain on the border with China, when the country was under Japanese control. More likely, analysts say, he was born in the Soviet Union where his father and other Korean exiles were being trained.

* By most accounts, Kim has built up unchallenged power while the country suffered poverty, mass starvation in the 1990s and heavy reliance on foreign aid despite the national doctrine of "juche" that preaches self-reliance.

* Kim travels widely in North Korea, official reports say, but rarely goes abroad and then only by private train. He is known to be a cinema buff, having directed several films and even kidnapped a director/actress from South Korea to help.

* Kim's bouffant hair, built-up shoes, chunky glasses and ill-fitting jumpsuits have made him the butt of jokes outside North Korea. Foreigners who have met Kim say he is clever, entertaining and very aware of events in the outside world.

* U.S. President George W. Bush has rarely concealed his dislike. At a meeting with Republican senators in 2003, Bush called Kim a "Pygmy" and compared him to a "spoiled child at a dinner table." He has also called him a "tyrant."

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Thatcher and Andy Sullivan; Writing by John O'Callaghan; Editing by David Storey)