SKorea: NKorea’s Kim is recovering from surgery
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is believed to be recovering from recent surgery, South Korea’s spy agency said Wednesday, as the communist nation rejected reports questioning Kim’s health as a “conspiracy plot.”
Speculation has intensified that Kim may have taken ill 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 to the isolated nation to possibly treat him.
On Wednesday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported to a parliamentary committee that it obtained intelligence reports showing Kim recently had surgery for an unspecified circulatory problem, and his condition had much improved, an agency official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing office policy, did not elaborate.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing lawmakers briefed by the spy agency, reported that the 66-year-old Kim suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, but he remains conscious and “is able to control the situation.”
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