The Curious Case of Kim Jong-Il's Illness

On Tuesday, Kim Jong Il did not attend a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of North Korea amid reports that the country's leader may be seriously ill. American intelligence officials in Washington said that he had probably suffered a stroke several weeks ago and was under the care of doctors in the capital city of Pyongyang. Mike Chinoy, senior fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy, is the author of Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis.