In Seoul
HE IS short, balding and has his curves in all the wrong places.
Yet he hogs the media spotlight with an ease and longevity that celebrities can only dream of.
He is none other than the "ailing" North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
Always in the news.
Source: AP
The amazing thing is that he gets attention by doing nothing.
To be exact, for not turning up at his country's 60th birthday last month.
The rumour mills went into overdrive.
He was felled by a stroke and attended to by Chinese neurosurgeons. He was on his deathbed but managed to recover enough to brush his teeth. The stories circulated were quite bizarre.
Korean lawmakers demanded an answer and the national spy agency had to appear in parliament to assure jittery legislators that Kim is still in control.
Analysts had a field day speculating on a post-Kim North Korea.
Will it be another dynastic succession? Will be it a military takeover? Will it be a collective form of leadership?
Before the ink barely dried, Kim suddenly reappeared in one of his routine inspections of a military unit.
The South Korean media, fresh from a rollercoaster ride over the stock market, went into another bout of frenzy. (Makes me wonder who needs the doctor more?)
Broadcasters got neurosurgeons to compare and contrast old and the 'latest' pictures of Kim.
The medical experts opined: "A little thinner, a bit gaunt but generally still in good health."
Then the conspiracy theorists smelled a rat. "The photo is dated," they exclaimed.
"The grass in the background is too green for autumn".
"The hair on Kim's head does not look it had been shaved for neurosurgery".
There are enough opinions to fill an encyclopaedia.
Truth be told, the average Korean is more interested with the dwindling value of his stocks and rising price of basic necessities to care about Kim Jong Il.
Still, that will not stop the media from chasing the elusive 'truth' about a man whose life has been less than transparent.