[USFK Forums] A Mystery in China: Is N. Korea's Leader in Town? [IHT]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, January 14, 2006

January 13, 2006

A Mystery in China: Is North Korea's Leader in Town?

By DAVID LAGUE
International Herald Tribune

HONG KONG, Jan. 13 - In a big Chinese city, a convoy of limousines with blackened glass windows and minibuses packed with security officers usually means inconvenience and delays for commuters. Without warning, thousands of police officers may block all approach roads so that a senior Chinese leader or visiting dignitary can sweep along empty avenues.

Rarely, though, do the authorities go to the extent of clearing out an entire five-star hotel without explanation ahead of time. So when the authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou ordered all guests to leave the luxury White Swan hotel on Thursday and threw up a tight security cordon around the building, it was clear that no ordinary dignitary was coming for the weekend.

With unconfirmed reports already circulating that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, had crossed the border into China aboard his special train earlier in the week, the hotel closure immediately fueled speculation that the secretive Mr. Kim had arrived for a tour of prosperous Guangdong Province, including the booming city of Shenzhen, next door to Hong Kong, where the Chinese economic changes began more than two decades ago.

Senior Chinese officials have said Beijing is encouraging North Korea to adopt some of the same free-market measures that rescued the planned economy of China from decades of stagnation, and Beijing may be eager to show Mr. Kim its showcase example. For Beijing, a revived North Korea would ease fears of a potentially destabilizing economic or political collapse on China's border and reduce the need for regular shipments of aid to prop up Mr. Kim's government.

The unconfirmed reports of Mr. Kim's tour have coincided with the visit to Beijing by Christopher Hill, the American assistant secretary of state, who is Washington's top negotiator with North Korea. But Mr. Hill, who is in China as part of a bid to restart talks aimed at brokering a deal to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs, said Thursday that he had "no plans" to meet Mr. Kim.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Kong Quan, said twice this week that he had no information about any visit by Mr. Kim, and the official Chinese news media carried no reports on the subject. But diplomatic analysts noted that the last time Mr. Kim visited China, in 2004, Beijing waited until he had returned home before breaking the news.

Mr. Kim has always been paranoid about security, according to accounts from defectors.

When he travels he is always heavily guarded, and information about his movements is kept secret, even when he is on one of his rare visits to Russia or China.

About nine hours after his train returned to North Korea after his visit to China in 2004, a huge explosion at a station just inside the North Korean border killed 54 people and injured more than 1,200 others, according to the Red Cross.

There were suggestions at the time that it was a mistimed assassination attempt, but senior South Korean officials said later that it appeared to be the result of an accidental collision between two trains laden with fuel.

Meanwhile, at the White Swan, a member of the reservations staff confirmed today that there were no vacancies at the 840-room hotel, but she declined to give any further details.

"Until the 16th of January, all the rooms are fully booked," she said.



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