North Korea leader 'could have partial paralysis'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had brain surgery after a stroke last month and could have partial paralysis on one side, it was reported today.

Foreign doctors, possibly from China and France, performed the operation after Mr Kim, 66, collapsed four weeks ago, South Korean newspapers Dong-a Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo claimed.

Mr Kim’s condition has improved and he is not suffering from slurred speech, a disability often associated with a stroke, the reports said.

If Mr Kim were incapacitated, it could have serious implications for international negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament.

The talks recently hit a snag because of a dispute between North Korea and the US over how to verify the North’s nuclear programmes, and a delay by Washington in its promised removal of North Korea from a list of nations that sponsor terrorism.

Lee Cheol-woo, a South Korean MP, said yesterday that Mr Kim is “recovering fast,” has “no problem speaking and communicating,” and is “able to stand if assisted.”

The MP, a leader of the parliamentary intelligence committee briefed by the country’s spy agency on Wednesday, did not give further details.

However, South Korea’s largest newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, said the stroke had left Kim with “partial paralysis.” A senior government official told the paper: “I understand that he is suffering inconvenience on the left part of his body.”

On Wednesday night, the office of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said it had received intelligence reports that Mr Kim is recovering from a cerebral haemorrhage and is still in control of his isolated country.

Speculation about Mr Kim’s health intensified after he missed a parade on Tuesday commemorating the communist state’s founding 60 years ago. That followed weeks of absence from public view and rumours that foreign doctors had been called in to treat him.

North Korea tried to dispel the rumours about his health.

“There are no problems,” deputy leader Kim Yong Nam told Japan’s Kyodo News agency.

Despite the willingness of North Korean officials to speak through a foreign news agency, their own state media remained quiet about Mr Kim’s condition.

South Korea’s spy agency reported to MPs that Kim is in a “recoverable and manageable condition,” and that North Korea is not in a “power vacuum”.

A cerebral haemorrhage 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.

Mr Kim, who has been rumoured to be in ill health for years, took over North Korea after the death of his father in 1994.