Kim Jong Il, North Korea's "Dear Leader", set off another round of speculation over his health today when he failed to appear at a triumphant military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the isolationist Stalinist state.

The North Korean military had reportedly been massing weapons for days in preparation for a major show of force on the streets of Pyongyang.

But the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported from the North Korean capital that Kim, 66, missed the parade, which was said to have featured a million citizens and militiamen.

North Korean media last reported a public appearance by Kim about a month ago, and South Korea's largest daily newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, reported today that Kim had collapsed last month.

Kim himself dismissed the constant speculation about his health during a summit meeting with the South Korean president last year: “I make a little move and that gets huge coverage. It seems like they’re fiction writers and not journalists.”

Analysts have cautioned not to read too much into the public appearances of Kim, who can drop out of sight for months and then show up in field guidance tours to military bases, farms and factories for visits described by the North’s propaganda machine as showing his tireless devotion to his country.

Another possible explanation has emerged with the publication by a Japanese expert of a book suggesting that Kim may in fact have died in 2003 and the North Korean goverment has been using a double to replace him at state occasions.

Today's parade was expected to be closely watched by military experts beyond North Korea's borders in case Pyongyang unveiled new weapons systems to boost its hand in denuclearisation negotations. But Kyodo said that the regular North Korean armed forces did not actually take part and the parade was dominated by civilian militia forces.

North Korea began taking apart its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant last November, as called for in a disarmament-for-aid deal it struck with five regional powers. The North, which tested a nuclear device about two years ago, had already completed most of the required disablement steps and experts said it would take a year or more for it to restart the plant.

But it stopped disabling Yongbyon in August, angered by Washington’s failure to drop it from a US terrorism blacklist. The United States said North Korea must first agree on a system to verify Pyongyang’s disclosures about its nuclear programmes.

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