North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who is reportedly recovering from a stroke, began losing consciousness at work in April and could not properly govern as his health worsened, a major daily Japanese newspaper reported yesterday.
Citing an unnamed Chinese official with close ties to North Korea, the Mainichi Shimbun said the 66-year-old Kim’s unspecified condition impaired his judgment, and his decisions related to international de-nuclearization talks became less flexible.
Kim had often worked late nights but was forced to curtail his schedule starting May or June, the Mainichi said.
In Seoul, Kim Ho-nyeon, a spokesman at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said yesterday that the Mainichi report could not be confirmed.
An official at the South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, also said he could not immediately confirm the Japanese media report. He asked not to be named, citing internal policy.
Japanese foreign ministry officials were unavailable for comment.
Kim’s health noticeably deteriorated last summer when serious kidney and heart problems began to plague the leader, according to the Japanese newspaper.
South Korean media have recently reported that Kim collapsed around Aug. 15. His absence from last week’s 60th anniversary celebrations intensified speculation that the leader — long believed to be suffering from diabetes and heart disease — was seriously ill.
He had been out of the public eye for weeks and foreign doctors were rumored to have been flown into Pyongyang to treat him.
A separate Japanese report on Saturday said Kim underwent heart surgery by a team of German doctors in late April last year.
It was unclear, however, whether his current condition was connected to the surgery, which was performed to widen blocked arteries, the Asahi Shimbun said, citing an unnamed South Korean government official.
Concerns have emerged South Korea said recently that North Korea had begun restoring its nuclear facilities, apparently to protest delays by Washington in removing the North from a list of terrorism-sponsoring countries.
North Korea stopped disabling its Yongbyon nuclear complex in the middle of last month.
The US has said North Korea must agree to an international plan to verify the account of its nuclear programs it submitted in June if it wants to be removed from the terrorism list.
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