North Korea's Kim On Way To Russia Via China

North Korea's Kim on way to Russia via China

Quote:

Jan 10, 2006

SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il passed through China on Tuesday on the way to Russia, a source with knowledge of the stopover said. South Korean and Japanese media said Kim was making a secret visit to China.

"He passed through China. He left today for Russia," the source, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.

"He did not meet any (Chinese) leaders," the source said, adding that Kim may stop over in China on his way home.

The source declined to provide further details.

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

Japan's Kyodo news agency had a similar report quoting diplomatic sources in Beijing.

Asked if Kim was in China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said he had not been authorized to release specific information.

"But I want to point out that China and North Korea are friendly neighbors and maintain a tradition of exchanges of high-level visits," he told a regular news conference.

Asked if there were plans for such a visit, he said: "Yes."

South Korea's presidential Blue House also could not confirm the trip, which would come as regional powers, including China and Russia, seek to nudge the North back into talks on its nuclear ambitions.

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

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.

Aversion To Flying

China is the North's sole remaining ally of consequence and a vital source of economic aid to the impoverished country.

It has also hosted several rounds of talks by six countries -- the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- 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, noting that the 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 firms suspected of involvement in counterfeiting, money laundering and the drug trade by the North, which it says funds the North's nuclear programs.

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

Media reports and diplomats say Kim -- like his late father, state founder Kim Il-sung -- is believed to have an aversion to flying and has almost always traveled by train under tight secrecy on his rare visits abroad. His 2004 trip to China was not officially confirmed until he had returned home.

Soon after his train passed through the North's northwestern town of Ryongchon on his way back to Pyongyang, 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.