A Japanese newspaper says North Korean people are well aware that their leader Kim Jong-il has picked his third son Jong-un as his heir.

The Tokyo Shimbun made the report from Dandong, a Chinese city bordering North Korea.

According to the newspaper, North Koreans are proud of the North's nuclear tests, the most recent of which came in May, saying that having nuclear weapons proves the nation is an international power.

The North Koreans, interviewed through barbed-wire fences on the border, reportedly said they were not concerned about the rumored bad health of their leader.