A French neurosurgeon has confirmed that Kim Jong-il had a debilitating stroke in 2008, and described secretly treating the reclusive dictator while the North Korean public and world remained unaware of his condition.

Dr Francois-Xavier Roux — speaking to The Associated Press on Monday — described Kim's concerns for his future, the challenge of working under constant surveillance, and Korean doctors' fear of making final decisions about how to save their supreme leader.

North Korean state media announced on Monday that Kim had died on Saturday at age 69.

Roux, the chief of neurosurgery at Sainte Anne Hospital in Paris, said he was urgently flown to North Korea in August 2008 to examine Kim, who was unconscious and "in a bad way" and in intensive care at Pyongyang's Red Cross Hospital, in the communist nation's capital.