Kim Jong Il ending China trip. What was accomplished?

Enquiring minds want to know...

Media report Kim Jong Il's visit to Beijing; China won't confirm

TOKYO -- Kim Jong Il's peek-a-boo visit to China this week reportedly included meetings in Beijing with top Chinese officials and some factory walkabouts. But none of this is certain, as China steadfastly refused to confirm that the North Korean leader was even in the country.

What has been confirmed this week -- thanks to the bird-dogging diligence of Japanese and South Korean news media -- is that the 68-year-old Kim has not recovered from a stroke he suffered in 2008.

Video clips showed him dragging his left foot as he walked. His left arm appeared almost motionless. He also appeared to have lost weight and hair, suggesting to some experts the effects of kidney dialysis, which South Korean intelligence analysts say he has been undergoing for some time.

The consensus among North Korea watchers in South Korea and China is that Kim traveled to China in search of investment and aid, particularly food. The North's moribund economy has been squeezed by tighter U.N. sanctions, and a severe food shortage this spring has reportedly caused starvation in some areas.

"For the North, the most pressing issue is food," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korean specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul. "That is why Kim went to China despite his ailing body."

Kim met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday night and with Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday, according to South Korea media. In return for aid, experts predict, Kim may be willing to resume denuclearization talks that the North abandoned last year. China is the host of those talks and is eager to restart them.

The talks, however, are on indefinite hold because of the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. The ship was torn in half on March 26 near a disputed sea border between the two Koreas. South Korea has not formally blamed North Korea for the attack, but it has said the explosion was probably caused by a torpedo and was no accident.

South Korea said Thursday it won't rejoin the six-party talks on the North's nuclear weapons until the ship sinking is resolved, a position shared by the U.S. government.

Analysts say that Kim may also have traveled to China to discuss the ship incident, perhaps to reassure Beijing that his government can be trusted. North Korea has denied any role in sinking the ship.

In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told reporters Thursday that she had "no information which can be offered to you" on Kim's whereabouts.


Asked about the South Korean ship, the spokeswoman said "the visit of [North Korea's] leader and the navy ship accident are two separate issues. It is a Chinese sovereign right to decide which country's leaders are allowed to visit China."

Kim has visited China by train five times since 2000 -- and each time nothing official has been said about it until he is safely back in North Korea.

North Korea insists upon this shrouded procedure and China plays along, according to Cui Yingjiu, a retired professor at Peking University who specializes in North Korea.

Kim's visit to China apparently ended Thursday as it began on Monday -- behind a semi-transparent veil of secrecy. His special train left Beijing Station in the afternoon, "raising speculation that the reclusive leader may have begun his trip home," reported Yonhap, the South Korean news agency.
[link to www.washingtonpost.com]