Ranking NK Military Official in Critical Condition

Korea Times
4/17/2007

A close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was in critical condition due to kidney failure, a civic aid group here said Wednesday.

Jo Myong-rok, first vice chairman of North Korea’s National Defense Commission (NDC), was in critical condition after his kidney was damaged, said Good Friends, a Seoul-based civic relief organization, in a monthly newsletter. Kim Jong-il is the NDC chairman.

Jo is widely known as a close confidant of Kim Jong-il, as he paid a visit to then U.S. President Bill Clinton in 2000 as Kim’s special envoy.

Doctors expect the 79-year-old vice marshal to live another month or two, as he already had one of his kidneys removed 10 years ago, and has gone through treatment for cancer in his intestines, the organization said.

“There were rumors of Jo’s illness,” a South Korean government official, asking not to be named, commented, adding that specifics of the illness were not known.

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