METHOD FOR CONTROLLING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE AND DEVICE FOR CONTROLLING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

A vehicle (1) is a hybrid vehicle including a traveling mode to travel only with the driving force of a drive motor (5). Vehicle (1) is mounted with an internal combustion engine (10) capable of being operated at an air-fuel ratio leaner than the theoretical air-fuel ratio. The operation of internal combustion engine (10) is controlled by a control unit (41). Control unit (41) is configured to determine whether to stop internal combustion engine (10) in an operation state, in consideration of the NOx adsorption ratio of a downstream-side exhaust purification catalyst (33) provided in an exhaust passage (31) of internal combustion engine (10).