Beijing, May 5 (DPA) North Korea’s highly secretive leader Kim Jong Il arrived in Beijing Wednesday to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, after entering China by train two days earlier, news reports said.
A motorcade brought Kim across the city to the Diaoyutai state guest house under tight security around 3:40 pm (1310 IST), Japanese agency Kyodo News reported.
Earlier, Kim’s special armoured train left the north-eastern city of Dalian, 150 km south-east of the capital, where he arrived Monday for his first visit to China in four years, South Korea’s Yonhap News agency reported. Kim is said to be afraid of flying.
The North Korean leader is expected to meet with Hu later in the day, Kyodo reported, citing a diplomatic source. Hu is scheduled to leave for Russia Friday.
This is the North Korean leader’s fourth visit to China, and his first since a suspected stroke in 2008. As per his other visits, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry has not confirmed Kim’s presence in the country, apparently on request from Pyongyang.
However, footage broadcast by Japan’s NHK television captured Kim Monday in front of a hotel in Dalian, accompanied by senior North Korean officials.
Kim is expected to ask China, one of the Stalinist state’s few allies, for economic aid and investments, given the parlous state of North Korea’s economy.
Analysts expect China to press Kim to return to multilateral talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme. North Korea walked away from the six-party talks, which also involve the US, South Korea, Japan and Russia, in April 2009.
China wants to resume the talks by July, Beijing’s top nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei was quoted as saying by Kyodo.
However, prospects for reviving the talks dimmed following the mysterious sinking of a South Korean warship in March. Seoul suspects North Korean involvement in the disaster, in which 46 sailors lost their lives. Pyongyang denies it had anything to do with the incident.
