Reports: North Korean leader believed to be making rare trip to China in his private train

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Reports: NKorean leader travels to China

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was believed to be making a rare trip to China on Monday amid tensions over the recent sinking of a South Korean warship and stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations, South Korean news reports said.

Kim’s personal train arrived early Monday amid tight security in the Chinese border town of Dandong, then headed to the port city of Dalian, the Yonhap news agency said. A convoy of 15 limousines was seen arriving at the city’s Furama Hotel, the report said.

North Korea’s reclusive leader rarely travels abroad but had been rumored to be planning a trip to neighboring China. He was believed to be on board the train that arrived in Dandong to a phalanx of Chinese soldiers and police blocking traffic, Yonhap said, citing unidentified sources in Dandong and Beijing.

Officials at South Korea’s presidential Blue House, Unification Ministry and Foreign Ministry said they could not immediately confirm the report. A spokesman at the National Intelligence Service, the main spy agency, said he had confirmed a North Korean train arrived in Dandong and was checking whether Kim was on board. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing agency policy.

A person at the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing said she had no knowledge of Kim’s trip. Calls to China’s Communist Party were unanswered Monday, a national holiday in China.

A potential Kim visit to China has been a focus of intense attention in recent months, with six-nation nuclear disarmament talks stalled for a year and tensions rising over the sinking of a South Korean naval ship in late March.

Kim, following through on Chinese President Hu Jintao’s invitation last year to visit China as part of celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of their nations’ ties, was expected to ask Beijing for financial help as Pyongyang copes with an economic crisis at home.

North Korea quit the disarmament-for-aid talks and conducted a second nuclear test last year, drawing tightened U.N. sanctions. China is North Korea’s last ally and biggest aid provider and is widely seen as the country with the most clout with Pyongyang.

The trip would be Kim’s first to China since 2006 and his first since reportedly suffering a stroke in August 2008. Kim, who turned 68 in February, is believed to be grooming his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to succeed him as leader of the nation of 24 million.

Kim, known to shun air travel, has a fleet of luxurious trains equipped with reception halls, conference rooms and high-tech communication facilities, said Lee Yong-guk, a former Kim bodyguard who defected to South Korea in 2005.

His special train typically travels with two other trains, one to ensure the safety of railway lines and another carrying security agents, he told The Associated Press.

In 2004, a massive explosion occurred near North Korea’s Ryongchon Station just hours after Kim passed through from a trip to China. More than 150 people died and 1,300 were injured, North Korean state media said. In March, a report carried by China’s official Xinhua News Agency cited rumors that the explosion was an attempt on Kim’s life.

Kim’s 17-car train crossed the border on its own Monday, without the usual railway convoy, Yonhap said.

In Dalian, a port city about 200 miles (300 kilometers) up the coast from Dandong, a group was seen entering the Furama Hotel, Seoul broadcaster YTN said. It was not clear if the delegation included Kim.

A switchboard operator at the hotel told AP that security had been tightened but she would not say whether Kim was expected or whether guests had been told to vacate. Yonhap said Kim was expected to spend the night in Dalian before traveling onto Beijing.

Separately, a Chinese news website published photos of a North Korean troupe arriving by train in Dandong on Sunday. Yonhap had reported last week that North Korea’s Sea of Blood opera troupe would present a remake of the Chinese classic “Dream of Red Mansions” in Beijing this month.

The reported Kim visit takes place as South Korea investigates the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship near the tense maritime border with the North. Forty-six sailors were killed.

South Korea has not directly blamed its Cold War-era rival and North Korea has denied involvement, but suspicion has focused on Pyongyang, given its history of provocations and attacks on the South.

“We must charge those responsible for the killing of soldiers, though we should consider the vicious circle of retaliation,” South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told KBS television in a program broadcast Sunday.

The two Koreas remain locked in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty. The South Korean warship went down near the spot where the Koreas’ navies have fought three bloody sea battles. North Korea disputes the maritime border.

The United Nations, meanwhile, was poised to convene a twice-a-decade conference in Washington on Monday to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003.

Associated Press writers Sangwon Yoon in Seoul and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.