North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has health problems "almost certainly," Yonhap News reported quoting a senior South Korean official Wednesday.
Kim, 66, didn't appear Tuesday at a major parade marking the Stalinist country's 60th anniversary and a U.S. intelligence official said he may have suffered a stroke.
"It is almost certain that Kim has a health problem," the official told Yonhap on condition of anonymity, adding that he seemed to have collapsed.
However, the official indicated that Kim had not died. "It is certain that a disastrous thing has not happened to Chairman Kim."
President Lee Myung-bak Wednesday convened an emergency meeting of senior secretaries to discuss mounting speculation about the health of the reclusive leader.
"Lee discussed countermeasures to a possible serious illness of the North Korean leader during his unscheduled meeting with senior presidential secretaries," a source at the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae was quoted as saying by Yonhap News.
"The president and his senior aides discussed all abnormal indications from North Korea, as the North's situation appears to be serious following Kim Jong-il's absence from a high-profile parade Tuesday," said the source.
A ranking intelligence official at Cheong Wa Dae said Seoul has thus far detected a number of "unusual goings-on" in North Korea that indicate Kim has collapsed due to some illness but is still alive.
Cheong Wa Dae officials said that President Lee suddenly changed his schedule to preside over the senior staff meeting at his office. He attended a late-night television town hall meeting Tuesday night.