North Korean leader on secret visit to China

North Korean leader on secret visit to China
ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAN 16: Making his second secretive visit to China in eight months, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has met Chinese officials and tentatively plans to inspect first-hand changes brought by two decades of market reforms.

The visit, the reclusive leader's second to China in eight months, comes amid quickening efforts by communist North Korea to break out of diplomatic isolation and improve relations with rival South Korea.

Kim traveled to Beijing by train from North Korea, met briefly with officials in the Chinese capital and left for another city, said a Chinese government official who asked not to be identified. The official said Kim's visit wouldn't be announced until after he returned home.

Employees with software and genetic research firms at a high-tech business park in Shanghai, China's financial capital, said they were told to expect a possible visit by Kim. Visiting Shanghai, with its budding stock exchange, skyscrapered business district and bustling port, would present Kim with stark evidence of China's successes in reforming its economy.

South Korean commentators suggested Kim wanted to study Chinese market reforms and coordinate policy with Beijing toward the administration of U.S. President-elect George W. Bush, who takes office Saturday.

Kim is reported to be considering limited reforms to revive North Korea's decrepit economy, which has been crippled by decades of economic mismanagement, the loss of Soviet-era subsidies from Moscow and a string of disastrous harvests that have caused chronic food shortages.

Officially, China refused to confirm that Kim was visiting. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said he had no information. Shanghai city officials refused to comment, but they appeared to be preparing a high-level government event.

An annual New Year's reception Thursday for foreign reporters was cancelled by the Shanghai city Foreign Affairs Office without explanation. Deputy mayors and other city officials who have attended previous such events would be required to host Kim.

An employee of the press office of the Grand Theatre, Shanghai's premier concert hall, said she heard Kim would attend a concert there Wednesday. The employee, who wouldn't give her name, said she had no official confirmation.

An Asian diplomat said Kim had previously told Chinese officials that he also wanted to visit Shenzhen, a booming center for finance and high-technology that borders Hong Kong. But the diplomat said Kim was unlikely to visit Shenzhen this time because it was too far.

South Korean commentators say a trip to study Chinese reforms would fit with Kim's official New Year's message calling on North Koreans to use "new thinking" in building a powerful nation. North Korea is also seeking diplomatic partners. It opened ties with the Netherlands on Monday and agreed to ties with Turkey, officials said Tuesday.

The Netherlands, the first country to open ties with Pyongyang this year, said it hoped normalizing relations would "help improve the integration of North Korea into the international legal order and world economy."

North Korean and Turkish officials also signed an agreement after talks Monday in Beijing stating their nations' intention to normalize relations, Turkish embassy official Ilhan Tug said. The Seoul newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, citing Chinese sources, reported Tuesday that Kim was expected to stay in China for a week. Other South Korean media said he was accompanied by high-ranking military and economic officials.

Kim last visited China on May 29-31. That visit - his first known trip abroad since coming to China in 1983 - wasn't announced until after he had returned home.

President Jiang Zemin, asked about Kim by reporters at an official function in Beijing, refused to confirm whether he was in China. ``I don't know yet," Jiang said at the meeting of the Sino-Japanese Frienship Society.