Milenko Kindl
SEOUL, South Korea - 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 suggested Wednesday, disputing re****ts
that the leader is gravely ill.
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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 and 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.
Song Il Ho, a senior North Korean diplomat, called re****ts of Kim's
illness "worthless" and a "conspiracy plot," adding that Western media
"have re****ted falsehoods before," according to Kyodo's dispatch from
Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
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, re****ted that Kim suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, but he
remains conscious and "is able to control the situation."
The spy agency also re****ted 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
re****t.
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.
Still, the professor said that if North Korea's leader underwent
surgery and has no paralysis, he could have suffered a cerebral
aneurysm =97 a kind of cerebral hemorrhage that accounts for about 6
percent of all cases.
"If it's cerebral aneurysm and surgery is done well and quickly, there
can be recovery without any disabilities," 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. That followed weeks of being absent from public view and
rumors that foreign doctors were brought in to treat him.
South Korea's president instructed his top security ministers and
aides to "carefully and thoroughly" prepare for any possible situation
that can occur regarding Kim's health, said Lee Dong-kwan, the
presidential spokesman.
Seoul's Defense Ministry said there had been no unusual North Korean
military movement and the heavily armed border between the two sides
remained quiet.
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.
North Korea has been locked in a standoff with the United States since
2002 over its nuclear ambitions. The country carried out its first
nuclear test in 2006, but agreed last year to disable its nuclear
facilities in exchange for economic aid and political concessions.
The negotiations hit a snag again recently with the two sides at odds
over how to verify North Korea's accounting of its nuclear programs.
Wa****ngton has delayed its promised removal of Pyongyang from the U.S.
terrorism blacklist.
Kim Yong Nam, the North's No. 2 leader, mentioned the dispute in his
talk with Kyodo.
"The United States was supposed to take us off the list of state
sponsors of terrorism ... but it is delaying that," he said.
He also expressed optimism for a positive conclusion.
"Once time p***** and we continue to try to find a way, I believe we
can solve this," he said.
Milenko Kindl
Banjaluka
Banja Luka
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