NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Il is believed to be recovering from an apparent stroke, South Korea's presidential office said yesterday.
President Lee Myung-bak convened a meeting of top security ministers, who were briefed on intelligence that indicates Kim is recovering, said Lee Dong-kwan, the president's chief spokesman.
The North Korean leader was "not seen to be in a serious
condition," the spokesman said.
Speculation that Kim may be ill had intensified after he missed a parade on Tuesday commemorating the communist state's founding 60 years ago. That followed weeks during which he was absent from public view and rumours that foreign doctors were brought to the isolated nation to treat him.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) told a parliamentary committee it had obtained intelligence reports showing Kim recently had surgery for an unspecified circulatory problem and his condition had much improved.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing MPs briefed by the service, reported that the 66-year-old Kim suffered a cerebral haemorrhage, but he remained conscious and "able to control the situation."
The NIS also reported that Kim was in a "recoverable and manageable condition," and that the North was not in a "power vacuum".
Earlier in the day, North Korean officials denied to foreign media that Kim was ill or that there was anything unusual about his absence.
"There are no problems," Kim Yong Nam, Pyongyang's deputy leader and ceremonial head of state, said.
