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epa01581269 An undated image released 17 December 2008 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (C) during a visit to the newly built Jagang Provincial E-Business Institute in Kanggye City. Kim Jong Il has made only few public appearances since he alledgedly suffered a stroke in August 2008. North Korea raised tension with the South on 18 December 2008 by accusing its neighbour of being behind espionage plots to undermine its communist system by trying to set up a secret religion and assassinate leader Kim Jong-il. North Korea's official KCNA news agency quoted on 18 December 2008 an unnamed security official as saying 'Shortly ago, a person surnamed Ri was discovered and arrested while being active to carry out the terrorist mission given by a South Korean puppet intelligence-gathering organization to do harm to the safety of the top leader of the DPRK (North Korea)'. EPA/KCNA