A South Korean source has denied rumors that Kim Kyung-hee, younger sister to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, may have recently committed suicide.

The source, based in Seoul and declining to be identified, brushed aside reports by Japanese media that the 59-year-old woman may have taken her own life and that on a separate count, she may have been involved in a car accident in September last year.

The source added, however, that she had been treated for alcohol abuse at a hospital in France last year.