SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has sacrificed holidays and time with his family to devote himself to his country, according to the communist state's media.

Official radio monitored by Seoul's Yonhap news agency said Kim spent almost two months on his trademark "field guidance" tours from late December to mid-February.

"I have stayed away from home for two months and lived in a train to give field guidance to various economic sectors in a forced march," it quoted Kim himself as saying on his 67th birthday on February 16.

"I cannot deny having had a desire to take holidays and rest with my family at home, but I couldn't do it because I was so concerned about people's lives."

Kim is widely believed to have suffered a stroke last August. The once-portly leader appears gaunt and much older and thinner in recent photos.

Nevertheless, he has more than tripled his public appearances this year, according to state media reports.

In April the ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Kim felt fatigue because of his tough schedule.

"A man is not made of iron and must take care of his own body. But I have no time to do so," the leader was quoted as saying during a field trip.

"Why wouldn't I be tired and need more sleep? Even though I'm tired, I endure it."

The newspaper depicted him as tough but tender in a report two days after the North's April 5 rocket launch. Kim was "choked with sobs" at the need to use the money on the launch rather than to improve people's livelihoods, it said.

"Our people will still understand," it quoted him as saying.

The North suffered famine in the 1990s which killed hundreds of thousands and still relies on foreign aid to alleviate severe food shortages.