BEIJING — China on Monday confirmed North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's visit, according to a Japanese news agency, signaling the end of a secretive trip that fueled speculation he was seeking aid and drumming up support for a succession plan.
Kyodo news agency said China informed Beijing-based diplomats about the visit. If true, it would be the first official confirmation of Kim's trip and would also likely mean he has left China, as Beijing has in the past not acknowledged Kim's visits until he has returned home.
In the absence of any official confirmation since Kim supposedly arrived in China late Wednesday, reporters have been basing their reports on sightings of what appeared to be his personal train and a 35-vehicle motorcade around several cities in northeast China. Kim, 68, rarely leaves North Korea and when he does travels by special train.
Despite a lack of public confirmation of the trip, Chinese state media published several editorials praising relations with North Korea on Monday.
"Maintaining and stabilizing the current relationship between China and North Korea is of maximum benefit to China," read the headline on an editorial in the Chinese-language Global Times, a newspaper published by the People's Daily, the flagship paper of the Communist Party.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing a Beijing diplomatic source, reported Monday that Kim and Chinese President Hu Jintao met in Changchun on Friday.
The diplomatic source said the Chinese Communist Party's International Liaison Department, which handles relations with North Korea, confirmed the details on Monday.
South Korean media have been reporting for several days that Kim was believed to be accompanied by his son, Kim Jong Un, but, according to Yonhap, the liaison office also said the son's name was not on China's list of invited guests.
Many North Korea watchers predict the son will be appointed to a key party position at a ruling Workers' Party meeting early next month _ the first such gathering in decades _ as part of a succession process. North Korea would need Chinese aid to pull off such an event.
Kim was reported to be heading to Tumen on the border with North Korea. Security was high in Tumen on Monday, local residents said.
A woman at the Jiang Nan Hotel 100 yards (meters) from the Tumen train station said the area was surrounded with police officers. Another woman working at the Xin Xianlu Hotel nearby said plainclothes police were stationed in her hotel. On the streets "there is a policeman almost every five meters (yards)," she said. Both women refused to give their names.
South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported earlier that Kim and Hu are thought to have discussed the North's succession, the resumption of talks aimed at disarming North Korea and ways to strengthen the allies' economic cooperation.
Kim's trip is his second to China in three months _ unusual for someone who rarely leaves his country. His May trip included talks with Hu and tours of companies and economic zones.
That trip, unlike the current one, was preceded by months of speculation that Kim would visit China.
___
Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
© 2010 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|
