NKorean news agency confirms secretive leader Kim Jong Il’s made ‘unofficial’ visit to China

more images

more images

NKorea media confirm Kim visit to China

BEIJING — North Korea’s state news agency has confirmed that secretive leader Kim Jong Il made a five-day trip to China.

The Korean Central News agency said Friday in a dispatch from Pyongyang that Kim made an unofficial visit to northeastern China from May 3 to 7.

The trip had been shrouded in secrecy. There was no mention of a one-on-one meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

There was no immediate comment from China’s Foreign Ministry or the Communist Party’s international department in Beijing.

China is North Korea’s most important ally. While Kim has grown ever more dependent on Chinese aid and diplomatic support, Beijing appears determined to do what it takes to prevent his regime’s implosion and the potential political chaos that could bring severe unrest to its border regions.

Kim met with Hu on Wednesday night and with Premier Wen Jiabao and other officials on Thursday, according to reports in South Korean media, which closely followed the visit.

This week’s visit was Kim’s fifth to China since succeeding his father as ruler in 1994, with the last in 2006.

Ailing from what was believed to have been a stroke in 2008, Kim, 68, is rarely seen in public and is surrounded by tight security at all times. His movements are never announced until his trips are finished, but several journalists spotted him in Beijing and rare footage of Kim has been captured by several TV broadcasters.

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu pleasantly maintained her insistence on claiming ignorance about the visit — but indicated word would be forthcoming.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that Kim told Hu he is ready to return to six-nation denuclearization talks, but it gave no details. Kim has said the same thing in the past, but usually with attached conditions, such as a long-sought direct dialogue with the United States. Yonhap did not say what, if any, conditions he set this time.

Scholars have said they expected Kim to express some new willingness to rejoin the long-stalled China-sponsored negotiations, under which North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear programs in return for aid.

North Korea quit the talks a year ago and then conducted a nuclear test that drew tightened U.N. sanctions. The last round of the talks — involving China, Russia, the two Koreas, Japan and the U.S. — was held in December 2008.

Although China is unlikely to link them explicitly, a return to the talks is likely to go hand-in-hand with new aid, including the implementation of economic agreements reached during a visit by Wen to North Korea last year.

Associated Press Writers Kwang-tae Kim and Jean Lee in Seoul and researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report.