North Korea is making its first documentary about leader Kim Jong-il's life, it emerged last Wednesday. A similar documentary about his father Kim Il-sung was made in 1993, a year before his death.

The official KCNA news agency and Korea Central Broadcasting said the Korea Scientific Documentary Film Studio had produced the first installment of a documentary about Kim Jong-il's life. North Korean media reported that the multi-part film will commemorate Kim's "immortal achievements" in the "military-first revolution."

The first part seems to cover his childhood and youth until graduation from college. But Korean Central TV did not air the film that day but only showed a rerun of Kim's on-the-spot guidance tours in February.

A South Korean official said, "North Korea airs quarterly documentaries about Kim's on-the-sport guidance tours, meetings with foreign dignitaries, and his attendance at major events, but th is apparently the first time the North has made a documentary about his life."

A researcher at a government-funded think tank said there seemed to be a link between the film and rumors that Kim's health is deteriorating and the succession has been decided. But an intelligence officer said there were no reports of any imminent change in North Korea.