North Korea reports Kim attending army art festival

LONDON (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who has been the subject of reports of poor health outside his reclusive country, attended an art festival given by soldiers, the state-controlled news agency KCNA said on Saturday.

The KCNA report, monitored in London, said Kim, 66, "warmly waved back to the enthusiastically cheering performers and congratulated them on their successful presentation."

The report said the performance, given by soldiers from a warship, was attended by senior figures from the Korean People's Army, but it did not say when it took place.

U.S. and South Korean officials have said Kim suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about succession in Asia's only communist dynasty and about who was making decisions concerning its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea has released undated still photographs in recent weeks of Kim in public, but analysts said there had been no definitive and timely image that shows him in good health.

South Korea's intelligence agency on Tuesday rejected a Japanese television report that Kim had suffered a second stroke late last month.

(Writing by Richard Balmforth; editing by Keith Weir)