King Harald V of Norway receives temporary pacemaker in Malaysia

King Harald V of Norway received a temporary pacemaker in Malaysia on Saturday to help him return home, the Norwegian Royal House said, after he contracted an infection during the trip.

The 87-year-old monarch had been admitted to a hospital on the Malaysian island of Langkawi due to an infection, the Royal House said earlier this week. The decision Saturday to place a pacemaker was made because the king had a “low heart rate” at home said in a statementand called the procedure ‘successful’.

The plan was to medically return the monarch to Norway within “the coming days,” the Royal House said. “His Majesty is doing well under the circumstances, but still needs rest,” the statement said. It added that the temporary pacemaker “will make the return home safer,” according to King Harald’s personal physician Bjørn Bendz, who is with the monarch.

King Harald V, one of the world’s oldest reigning monarchs, was crowned in 1991 and is the country’s first native-born king since the 14th century. His reign coincided with an economic boom in Norway, fueled by oil and gas, and the monarchy showing greater openness to the public. In a controversial decision at the time, he married Sonja Haraldsen, a commoner and the daughter of a clothing merchant, in 1968.

The couple made extensive state visits abroad, even only in 2020. More recently, however, King Harald has suffered from periods of ill health and has sometimes been seen in public using walking aids. He underwent heart surgery in 2020 to replace a valve he had installed in 2005, and has also been ill in recent months due to infections. His son, Crown Prince Haakon, has taken on many of the monarch’s royal duties in his absence.

The king was scheduled to appear at a meeting of the State Council on March 8 his public agenda. When his second cousin and Europe’s longest-serving monarch, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, unexpectedly announced her abdication in December, speculation arose about the king’s future. But he has said he has no plans to follow suit.

“I took an oath,” he said reporters in Oslo in January. “It will last a lifetime.”