SEOUL // The North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has suffered a stroke but will recover, South Korea's intelligence agency told parliament on Wednesday, according to a politician. Won Hye-Young quoted an intelligence official as telling a closed session that Kim had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage which caused the stroke but is in "recoverable condition". The North Korean leader, 66, is not fit to appear in public but remains conscious and able to lead the country, Mr Won quoted the National Intelligence Service (NIS) official as saying.
The agency believes there will be no power vacuum in the communist state because Kim can recover his health, Mr Won said. It was not clear when he suffered the stroke. An NIS spokeswoman could not immediately confirm the remarks, saying the parliamentary briefing was not yet over. Kim failed to appear at a major parade Tuesday to celebrate the nation's 60th anniversary. US and South Korean officials said he may have suffered a stroke. The North's de facto head of state Kim Yong-Nam was quoted by Japan's Kyodo News as saying in Pyongyang there is "no problem" with the top leader's condition. But he appeared to indicate that Kim Jong-Il's absence from the parade was unscheduled.
"While we wanted to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country with General Secretary Kim Jong-Il, we celebrated on our own," Kim Yong-Nam was quoted as saying. The agency said there were no signs of concern in the city, with families strolling and visiting food stalls. Official media said on Wednesday that Kim Jong-Il sent a congratulatory birthday telegram to his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad. An unidentified Seoul government official told Yonhap news agency earlier that Kim had undergone surgery after the stroke but his condition is not life-threatening.
"It seems that he had intended to attend the Sept 9 event in the afternoon but decided not to because of the aftermath of the surgery," the official said. Kim's illness comes amid deadlock in a six-nation nuclear disarmament deal and fears that the North, which carried out its first atom bomb test two years ago, intends to restart the programme. Kim is known to suffer from diabetes and heart problems and there have been several reports in the past of him receiving treatment.
The South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak called an emergency meeting of top aides to discuss the situation. Presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan said the government has been analysing intelligence for some time and had anticipated that Kim would be absent from Tuesday's parade. "The government is still paying close attention to ongoing circumstances in North Korea to make thorough preparations for any emergency situation there," the spokesman said without officially confirming Kim is ill. Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said Tuesday that Kim reportedly collapsed on August 22. Chosun had earlier reported that five Chinese doctors had been in North Korea for more than a week, possibly to treat Kim. Yang Moo-Jin, of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, told AFP: "It is quite certain that some French and Chinese experts have entered North Korea to treat Kim Jong-Il but it remains unknown what condition he is in." Kim's health has been the subject of intense speculation since he took over from his father, who died in 1994, in the communist world's only dynastic succession. He has not publicly nominated any successor. The defence ministry in Seoul said no particular North Korean troop movements had been detected and no unusual radio traffic had been heard. *AFP
