[USFK Forums] N. Korea's Kim tours China's economic boom town [Reuters]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Monday, January 16, 2006

January 15, 2006
North Korea's Kim tours China's economic boom town

BEIJING (Reuters) - The leader of isolated North Korea spent the weekend touring the cradle of China's economic boom, but Kim Jong-il is unlikely to go home without meeting top Chinese leaders to discuss how to resume stalled nuclear talks.

Rumours began to swirl early last week that the leader of the reclusive Stalinist state was making one of his rare overseas visits, but sightings in southern China have given way to more concrete speculation over why he is here.

Kim's choice of destination offers clues to the reasons behind his trip, only his fourth known tour to China.

[PHOTO - Unloadable] A limousine, which is rumoured to be carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, is followed by security vehicles as it enters the city district of Shenzhen, southern China January 14, 2006. (REUTERS/Kyodo)

On Sunday he was apparently visiting the boom town of Shenzhen on the border with Hong Kong, a day after a tour of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, the fastest-growing corner of the world's most rapidly developing major economy.

Kim spent Sunday touring one of the high-tech companies in Shenzhen -- the pioneer city for China's economic reforms -- and visiting the Yantian port which is one of China's most advanced, computerised container ports, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.

China has drawn an official veil over Kim's trip. His previous visit in April 2004 was marked by heavy security and was confirmed only after he had returned home.

But Beijing may be eager for the 62-year-old leader of one of the world's poorest nations to learn from the changes that can be wrought by a communist state ready to bend socialist principles to implement market-orientated reforms.

Twenty years ago, Shenzhen was a small town surrounded by paddy fields. Today it is China's richest city.

Beijing, one of Kim's few remaining allies and the North's major source of such aid as grain and oil, wants him to revive not only his struggling economy but also the stalled six-party talks on ending his ambitious nuclear programmes.

Kim was unlikely to leave China without meeting President Hu Jintao, the Communist Party chief, who would almost certainly press Kim to return to the talks, analysts said.

NUCLEAR TALKS

One Japan-based Korea-watcher said Kim, who was accompanied by senior military officials and communist hardliners, wanted to demonstrate his readiness to embark on more economic reforms and to return to the nuclear talks involving South and North Korea, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China.

"I believe Kim wants to appeal both to foreign and domestic audiences that he will advance reforms and that this could lead to a breakthrough in the six-party talks," said Lee Jong-won, professor of international politics at Tokyo's Rikkyo University.

The nuclear talks made progress late last year when North Korea agreed in principle to dismantle its atomic weapons programmes in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

The six were meant to meet again at the start of this year, but North Korea has threatened a boycott because of a U.S. crackdown on its finances. The last round took place in November.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator with North Korea, met Chinese officials in Beijing last Thursday to try to breathe new life into the talks process.

Lee of Rikkyo University said a next round could take place as early as next month.

"Neither North Korea nor the United States wants the six-party talks to break down," he said. "North Korea will agree to treat financial sanctions separately from the six-party talks and resume the next round of talks in February, I think."

Kim may also need to persuade hardliners in the top echelons of his powerful military of the need for reforms and nuclear talks, Lee said.

"His visit to China this time is aimed at demonstrating to the outside world his stance for reforms. This is what China has long been urging him to do," Lee said.

After Kim's visits to Beijing and Shanghai in 2000 and 2001, North Korea began to experiment with the introduction of reforms that allowed private markets and curtailed the state rationing system.



(Additional reporting by Teruaki Ueno in Tokyo)




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