[USFK Forums] Kim Jong-il on visit to China/Kim Jong-il may be visiting China

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Tuesday, January 10, 2006

2006/01/10 17:51

Kim Jong-il on visit to China: sources

BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il began a rare visit to China on Tuesday, Chinese sources said, as China and other regional players were trying to revive stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear weapons program.

There was no official confirmation of Kim's trip to China but Chinese sources in Beijing said the train carrying Kim and his party passed through Dandong, a Chinese border city, at about 6:30 a.m. (2230 GMT), about an hour behind schedule.

N.Korea's Kim Jong-il may be visiting China

By Jack KimTue Jan 10, 4:04 AM ET

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may have entered China by train on a visit, South Korean news reports said on Tuesday, quoting sources in China and South Korea.

There was unusually heavy security near the Chinese city of Dandong's train station and talk of a special train from North Korea passing through before dawn on Tuesday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a source in the city as saying.

In Beijing, China's foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the reports, but North Korea's embassy there said it had no knowledge of the rumoured visit.

"We don't know ... We have nothing to do with this," the embassy spokesman said, adding there were no plans for a visit.

Chinese President Hu Jintao visited North Korea in October on a trip that was seen as underscoring China's role in persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Yonhap quoted its source as saying the level of security in Dandong resembled that seen in April 2004 when the North Korean leader visited China.

The agency also quoted a South Korean military intelligence official as saying Kim had entered China. "We have confirmed that Chairman Kim is in China," the official said. "But we don't know the reason for his visit."

Kim rules the North as the chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission. He took power after his father, state founder Kim Il-sung, died in 1994.

SOLE ALLY

China is the North's sole remaining ally and a vital source of economic aid to the impoverished country. It has also hosted several rounds of talks by six countries aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear weapons.

"The North's negotiating position has turned for the worse recently," said Kim Sung-han, a South Korean expert, on the condition that reports of Kim's visit remained speculative.

"And this may be an attempt to seek China's help in turning things around on issues, including financial sanctions."

Washington has cracked down on several firms suspected of involvement in counterfeiting, money laundering and the drug trade by the North, which it says funds the North's nuclear programmes.

The North has demanded an end to the crackdown as a condition for resuming the nuclear talks.

A South Korean Foreign Ministry official said confirmation of a Kim visit through the Chinese government would be difficult.

"Even if he is on the visit, China will be hard-pressed to confirm it," the official said by telephone. A Unification Ministry official was not able to confirm the reports.

"There is a rumor that the North's high-level leader will be arriving at Beijing station on Tuesday morning," the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper quoted a diplomatic source in Beijing as saying.

Media reports and diplomats say Kim is believed to have an aversion to flying and has almost always travelled by train under tight secrecy on his rare visits abroad. His 2004 trip to China was not officially confirmed until he had left Beijing.

Soon after his train passed through the North's northwestern town of Ryongchon on his way home, a huge explosion rocked its train station in what the North later said was an accident.

More than 160 people were killed in the explosion, which prompted speculation in the South -- never confirmed -- about a botched assassination attempt.



(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck in Beijing and Lee Jin-joo in Seoul)