North Korean leader Kim Jong-il underwent heart surgery by a team of German doctors last year, a Japanese daily newspaper said.
Asahi Shimbun said only a handful of South Korean government officials were informed of the surgery by one of the German doctors. The Japanese newspaper cited a Korean government official, who was allegedly one of them.
The daily said Kim had undergone coronary artery surgery in April 2007 and recovered later.
It is not known whether the recent news of Kim having a stroke was related to the surgery. The National Intelligence Service, Korea’s top spy agency, confirmed the German doctors’ visit to North Korea at a hearing at the National Assembly in June 2007. The agency, however, did not confirm whether the surgery took place.