SEOUL - A SOUTH Korean newspaper said on Friday the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is rapidly worsening and Pyongyang is trying to import expensive medical equipment through China.

The North is also seeking to bring in an emergency helicopter, the South's largest-selling daily Chosun Ilbo reported.

Mr Kim is widely believed to have suffered a stroke last August but there was no confirmation of the latest report. The National Intelligence Service declined to comment.

Chosun said Pyongyang's Ponghwa Hospital is treating the 67-year-old.

It said officials of the hospital who are based in Beijing are trying to buy medical equipment which has been banned under an embargo imposed in 2006 to punish the North's first nuclear test.

The UN resolution does not ban the import of medical equipment, only items which could be related to weapons programmes.

'Kim's illness appears to be serious,' a North Korean source in Beijing told the newspaper.

The North's policy has grown notably harder-line this year, with a long-range rocket launch in April and a second nuclear test in May.

Analysts say the leader is projecting an image of strength to bolster his authority as he prepares one of his sons for a takeover.

South Korea's intelligence services have been told that Mr Kim has nominated 26-year-old Jong Un - the youngest - to succeed him, a South Korean lawmaker briefed by intelligence officials said this month. -- AFP