North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il arrived in Beijing on Wednesday and was seen en route to what was believed to be a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, a South Korean media report said. Kim’s arrival in Beijing marks the climax of a trip during which he has reportedly inspected manufacturing sites in northeastern and eastern China — a tour believed to be aimed at studying China’s economic boom.
The repeated visits to China by the reclusive leader, who rarely leaves his homeland, are widely viewed as a bid by impoverished North Korea for more trade and economic help from Beijing, its sole major ally and benefactor.
Kim’s special train, which brought him to China last Friday, pulled into the Chinese capital in the morning and he went straight to a government compound where foreign leaders are hosted, Yonhap news agency said.
Later, Kim’s motorcade was seen departing the Diaoyutai state guesthouse and heading for the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing where the summit meeting was believed to be held, the report said. Security at the guesthouse situated in western Beijing was extra-tight, an AFP reporter there said. It was not clear what was on the agenda for the two leaders — Kim’s China visits are shrouded in secrecy with details normally divulged by both sides only after his return home.
China’s foreign ministry declined immediate comment to AFP.
During Kim’s last visit in August, Hu urged his neighbour to launch reforms of North Korea’s state-planned economy, which is crippled by severe food, power, and raw materials shortages. China is isolated North Korea’s only major ally and a key economic lifeline for Kim’s Stalinist regime.
China also is keen to restart six-nation talks that it hosts on dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear programmes.
