S. Korea: Kim Jong Il on road to recovery from stroke

North Korean leader currently "not seen to be in a serious condition," says President Lee Myung-bak's spokesman.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
kim jong il 224 88 (photo credit: AP [file])
kim jong il 224 88
(photo credit: AP [file])
North Korea's Kim Jong Il is on the road to recovery from a stroke and still in control of his isolated country's communist regime, South Korea has suggested, disputing reports that the leader is gravely ill. President Lee Myung-bak convened a meeting of top security ministers, who were briefed on intelligence that indicates Kim was recovering, said Lee Dong-kwan, the president's chief spokesman. The North Korean leader was currently "not seen to be in a serious condition," the spokesman said in a statement after the meeting late Wednesday, citing the contents of the briefing. Earlier, South Korea's spy agency told a closed door meeting of lawmakers it had intelligence showing the 66-year-old Kim's condition had much improved, an agency official said on condition of anonymity, citing official policy. South Korea's optimistic view of Kim's health came as North Korea moved to try to dispel fears about his health after he failed to appear for a key national ceremony Tuesday. "There are no problems," Kim Yong Nam, Pyongyang's No. 2 leader and ceremonial head of state, told Japan's Kyodo News agency. Despite the willingness of the North Korean officials to speak through a foreign news agency, their own state media apparatus remained mum on Kim's condition. South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing lawmakers briefed by the spy agency, reported that Kim suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, but he remains conscious and "is able to control the situation." Yonhap also said Kim had a surgery for stroke, but the spy agency declined to confirm that, saying only that he had "treatment" for an unspecified circulatory problem. The report did not say when he suffered the stroke. South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Tuesday that Kim collapsed on Aug. 22. The spy agency also reported to lawmakers that Kim is in a "recoverable and manageable condition," and that the North is not in a "power vacuum," Yonhap said. Intelligence agency officials said they could not confirm the Yonhap report. Despite the reassurances, little was publicly known about Kim, whose health has been a focus of intense interest because his fate is believed to be closely tied to that of the totalitarian state. "If he had surgery, it means it's serious," Kim Jong-sung, a neurology professor at Seoul's Asan Medical Center, said regarding a cerebral hemorrhage. The condition can result in death, paralysis, difficulty in speaking and other disabilities, although if it is minor, recovery is possible without long-term affects. Surgery is generally only considered in the most serious cases, he said. Speculation that Kim Jong Il may have become ill intensified after he missed a parade Tuesday commemorating the communist state's founding 60 years ago. Kim, who has been rumored to be in varying degrees of ill health for years, took over North Korea upon the death of his father in 1994.