SEOUL, South Korea – North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's health has worsened and he can no longer walk normally, a South Korean lawmaker said Wednesday.

Liver and heart problems and worsening diabetes are to blame for the reclusive communist leader's difficulty in walking, opposition lawmaker Chung Hyung-keun said at a party meeting, according to his office.

He said Kim had gone to a top hospital in Beijing for treatment when he traveled to China in January.

“Kim has a secretary who follows him with a chair as the North Korean leader has to sit and rest after walking some 20 to 30 meters (yards),” Chung said at the meeting in Gyeongju, about 230 miles southeast of Seoul.

It was not possible to independently confirm Chung's claim. His office said he obtained the intelligence from “reliable people” but refused to elaborate.

Chung worked for the predecessor of the National Intelligence Service, South Korea's spy agency, before becoming a lawmaker in 1996.

The National Intelligence Service and the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, had no comment.

There have been recent rumors that Kim might visit China again because his special train had arrived in a town near the Chinese border. China has denied any arrangements for such a trip.

Kim rarely travels abroad, but has occasionally visited allies China or Russia, most recently touring several Chinese cities in January. China and North Korea did not officially acknowledge that Kim had been in the country until after he left.