Tokyo(Japan), Mar. 15 : North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, it seems, not only wants to test his missiles, but also fancies eating ravioli and pasta regularly.

So deep is his love for Italian cuisine, that he has ordered the opening of North Korea's first "authentic" Italian restaurant and reportedly spared nothing in getting the recipe right.

According to the New York Daily News, though North Korea is plagued by food shortages, it has ordered the import of wheat, flour, butter and cheese from Italy for the eatery.

Seoul  - North Korean voters returned leader Kim Jong Il to the Stalinist state's rubber-stamp parliament with 100 per cent support, the country's state-run media said Monday.

In the unsurprising result, 100 per cent of the voters of constituency 333 supported Kim in Sunday's election, the Korean Central News Agency said.

All voters "renewed their unshakable determination to devotedly safeguard Kim Jong," KCNA said.

Further details about the composition of the 12th Supreme People's Council were not released.

London, Mar 7 : North Korea elects a new legislature tomorrow, but observers of the secretive nation will be watching Kim Jong Un, the 26-year-old some believe will be selected to lead after his father's death.

Speculation about a successor has been mounting since Kim Jong Il, 67, reportedly had a stroke in August 2008.

If Kim Jong Un joins the legislature, it would be a strong sign he is being groomed to take over, Scotsman reported.

Seoul - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il attended a lunar New Year's concert in the capital Pyongyang, state-controlled media reported Tuesday as speculations persist about his health.

Kim was accompanied by senior officials of the ruling Workers Party and top military officials, the KCNA news agency said.

The report didn't specify when and where the performance took place. The lunar New Year fell on Monday.

The audience cheered when Kim appeared in the auditorium and the leader expressed satisfaction over the performance given by the state merited chorus, KCNA said.

Paris - North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke last summer but was now on the mend, a French doctor who treated him told the daily Le Figaro.

"Kim Jong-il was the victim of a stroke, but he did not undergo surgery," Francois-Xavier Roux, head of neurosurgery at Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris, told the newspaper on Thursday.

"Today, he is doing better. The photographs that have just been published seem genuine to me," Roux said.

Tokyo, Dec. 2 : A previously unknown son of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il may be emerging as a contender to replace him when he dies, according to reports.

"Until now the in-fighting appeared to have been between two factions representing Kim''s two sons, Kim Jong Nam and Kim Jong Chol, but there are now reports of another son coming forward," The Telegraph quoted Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of international relations at Tokyo''s Waseda University and an expert on North Korean affairs, as saying.