A motorcade believed to be carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived at Beijing's state guesthouse yesterday, South Korean media reported, the latest sighting of a man whose whereabouts remain a mystery.
The 30-car convoy arrived at the Diaoyutai Guesthouse in Beijing at about 8:30am, a diplomatic source told South Korea's Yonhap news agency on condition of anonymity.
Kim was expected to meet with President Hu Jintao (
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had no information on Kim's reported visit. In the past China has released details of Kim's travels only after he has returned to his country.
Kim, who rarely ventures abroad, is believed to have crossed into China a week ago.
It was his first known trip to his regime's only major ally since 2004. He also made a pair of visits to China in 2001.
Foreign news reports stated that Kim spent nearly a week in the heart of China's booming south, touring high-tech companies in a possible search for ideas to revive his country's laggard economy.
A Japanese TV network showed what it said was Kim on a river cruise in Guangdong Province.
Another Japanese broadcaster, Nippon TV, showed a figure with Kim's distinctive hairstyle getting into a limousine outside the provincial capital's White Swan hotel.
Meqnwhile, on Monday, pro-Beijing newspapers in Hong Kong said Kim's armored train was carrying him to the Chinese capital to meet Hu.
The US has urged Beijing to use its influence to convince Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks.
International talks on the North's nuclear ambitions have been stalled since November, with Pyongyang accusing the United States of a hostile attitude.
The talks also include Russia, Japan and South Korea.

DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km

Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s

‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on

POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...