North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il appeared to be heading home from China Saturday, news reports said, with Beijing's diplomatic and financial support for an eventual handover of power to his son.
Kim left a hotel in northeastern China on Saturday where he is believed to have met with Chinese President Hu Jintao, according to South Korean media.
YTN TV and Yonhap news agency said a convoy of some 20 cars, protected by 10 Chinese security vehicles, left the hotel in the city of Changchun at 9:05am (0005 GMT).
The convoy was heading for an agricultural university in Changchun, which Kim is expected to inspect before heading home, they said.
Earlier, a container truck which was believed to be carrying luggage belonging to Kim's entourage left for the city's railway station where Kim's special train was on standby, Yonhap said.
South Korean officials said Kim was likely to return home Saturday after securing massive economic aid and diplomatic support from China for its impoverished communist neighbour.
"President Hu, who had been on leave somewhere in northeastern China, went to Changchun to meet Chairman Kim," an unidentified intelligence official was quoted as saying by the Chosun daily.
"Chairman Kim is likely to return home on a special train as early as Saturday," the official said.
Hu's meeting with Kim during the Chinese leader's summer holiday echoed the informal summits of former US president George W. Bush who invited his closest allies to his private ranch, the Chosun daily said.
"It looks like China wants to show off its strong alliance with the North toward the United States and South Korea," the official said.
Kim's China trip comes amid simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula following the North's alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship in March, which killed 46 sailors.
The United States and South Korea have been carrying out a series of military exercises, including a naval drill in the sensitive Yellow Sea, sparking angry reactions and counter-exercises from China.
The ailing Kim might be accompanied to China by his 27-year-old son, Kim Jong-Un, who is widely tipped to be elected to the North's leadership at a rare party meeting early next month, analysts in Seoul said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment