SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea denied Wednesday that leader Kim Jong Il is seriously ill, granting a Japanese news outlet a rare chance to interview top officials who dismissed widespread reports questioning Kim's health.

Speculation had intensified that Kim may have taken ill after he missed a parade Tuesday commemorating the communist state's founding 60 years ago. That followed weeks of him being absent from public view and rumors that foreign doctors were brought in to the isolated nation to possibly treat him.