Secretive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly began another day of tours of high-tech companies in southern China yesterday, part of what could be a trip to study reforms to boost his country's decrepit economy.
Neither side has confirmed Kim's visit to China, which reportedly has included stops in Guangzhou, the mainland's southern business capital, and Shenzhen, a technology center that borders Hong Kong.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said Kim had planned on Saturday to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was in Xiamen, a coastal city northeast of Shenzhen and a short flight from Guangzhou.
Yesterday, the front pages of Chinese newspapers showed pictures of Hu shaking hands with representatives of Taiwanese businesses in Xiamen. No mention was made of Kim or a meeting with him.
Beijing is under pressure from Washington to use its influence as Pyongyang's last main ally to restart six-nation talks aimed at eliminating the isolated North's nuclear programs.
Talks have stalled over North Korea's anger at US-imposed sanctions for alleged counterfeiting and other wrongdoing by the North.
In September, negotiators announced a breakthrough when Pyongyang pledged to give up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security assurances. Follow-up negotiations have gone nowhere.
Japan's Kyodo News agency said Kim left a hotel in Shenzhen yesterday to continue his tour, which would include a visit to port facilities.
A woman at the reservation desk of the Wuzhou Guest House, where Yonhap said Kim was staying, said vacant rooms were hard to come by because of ``business meetings'' that were being held there. She hung up when asked about Kim.
The Shenzhen traffic police office said the area outside was closed off to traffic yesterday morning. A woman who answered the telephone at the office said it was ``not clear'' why the measures were being taken and refused to give her name.
A duty officer at the city government said he had not received any information on a visit by Kim.
Media speculation has run the gamut since Tuesday, when the North Korean leader's armored train reportedly crossed into China. At one point, he was also said to have been in Russia.
Japan's NTV and TBS networks broadcast what they said were scenes of Kim's motorcade in Guangzhou and him aboard a boat on the city's Pearl River.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK on Saturday showed a figure believed to be Kim walking around a hotel entrance in Shenzhen. In other footage, NHK showed what appeared to be Kim seated at a table in a banquet hall.
The North's state-run economy has been crippled by widespread hunger and the end of Soviet subsidies in the early 1990s.
North Korea has allowed small farmers' markets and other modest reforms. But Beijing has been pushing for more changes in an effort to revive the economy and reduce its reliance on Chinese aid.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS