By Lee Tae-hoon

North Korea has deployed heavy-weapons, including tanks, around its leader Kim Jong-il's residences in Pyongyang, out of fear that ongoing anti-government protests in the Middle East may spread to the poverty-stricken communist regime as well, a lawmaker said Sunday.

According to the lawmaker, a senior official of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed media reports that Kim has fortified his residences during a closed-door session of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee, Friday.

"When asked to confirm reports regarding the effect of the collapse of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, the official replied that he is aware that Kim Jong-il has placed tanks and many other weapons around his residences for fear of a similar situation," the lawmaker, who attended the session, said asking not to be identified.

The North Korean leader, who succeeded the throne from his father and the founder of North Korea Kim Il-sung, after his death in 1994, reportedly has four residences in Pyongyang alone.

The lawmaker also noted that, when asked whether the pro-democracy rebellions in the Middle East were having any effect on the North, the NIS official answered that they have had "practically none."

The NIS official, however, reportedly acknowledged that the communist regime was tightening its grip on its diplomats returning from abroad for fear that they would spread news of the Middle Eastern crisis to others around them.

Meanwhile, a state-run North Korean paper Saturday urged South Korea to unconditionally come to the negotiating table to diffuse cross-border tensions.

The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers' Party, said that if South Korea was truly interested in reconciliation, it should accept dialogue without demanding pre-conditions.

Working-level military talks between two Koreas broke down last month as the North Korean delegation walked away from the negotiating table, protesting Seoul's demands for an apology for last year's two armed provocations, which killed 50 people.

However, the paper, which is carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, claimed policymakers in Seoul have rejected talks in the past and threatened to escalate tensions.

It added that the North is only interested in improving inter-Korean relations to create an atmosphere of peace that can eventually lead to unification, and called on South Korea to show its sincerity to ease tensions.