North Korean leader Kim Jong-il likes to burn the midnight oil and wakes cadres in the predawn hours to give them advice on their work, the reclusive country's official media reported over the weekend. | Big daddy can't sleep, ain't nobody gonna sleep. |
"Staying up all night is my habit," Kim was quoted as saying in the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the South's Yonhap news agency reported.
Kim surprised one unidentified worker with a 4 a.m. call to give him instructions on how to do his job, the paper said. "I again wake up a sleeping comrade," Kim said. The worker, worried about Kim's health, asks him to take a break, the report said. Kim told the worker the late hours do not bother him. "At this time, my work is in full swing," he reportedly said.
There has been speculation in the South that Kim, 65, may be recovering from an illness. Pictures released of an event earlier this month show he has lost weight and his hair has thinned from a year ago.
| He's just getting in shape for Pelosi's surprise birthday visit. |