North Korea, take a word from the wise – just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you.

“We see such reports as not only worthless, but rather as a conspiracy plot,” Song told Kyodo in what the agency said was North Korea’s first reaction to the reports. “Western media have reported falsehoods before,” he said, according to the report from Pyongyang.

It was not the first time North Korea sent a message to the outside world through Kyodo. Kim Yong Nam also gave the news organization an interview two days after North Korea carried out its first-ever nuclear test blast in 2006.

In another indication that the North’s leader is alive, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim sent a birthday greeting Wednesday to Syria’s leader.