North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is visiting powerful ally China with his son and heir apparent, South Korean government sources said, ahead of a meeting next month that may settle his succession.
The visit comes ahead of a rare meeting of the Workers’ Party (WPK), which rubber stamps major policy decisions in the North. Analysts say the assembly could set in motion the succession of the leader’s son, Kim Jong-un.
“Kim Jong-il is traveling through China by train, but we have no information as to whether his son is accompanying him,” a presidential source said.
A South Korean foreign ministry source said there was evidence that both Kim and his son were in China.
Kim, his iron rule underpinned by a personality cult, rarely travels abroad. However, this would be the second time since May that he has gone to China on which he depends to prop up his country’s failing economy.
When he does travel, he always goes by private train and is thought to be terrified of flying.
There is widespread speculation that Kim is in poor health following a suspected stroke in 2008 and some analysts say he may be in a hurry to establish his son’s succession to the family dynasty that has ruled North Korea since its founding after World War II.
Daniel Pinkston, a specialist on Korean affairs in Seoul with the International Crisis Group, said a visit was most likely connected to next month’s WPK meeting.
“There is so much circumstantial evidence pointing to the succession issue. And there are other signs that they are hurting for cash aid and assistance. The two things are not mutually exclusive,” he said.
China’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment on his reported visit.
A policewoman at the Chinese border town of Jian said: “Some leader came yesterday,” but declined further comment on reports that the two Kims had traveled there on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, former US president Jimmy Carter spent a second day in North Korea yesterday on a mission to bring home a Boston man jailed in the country since January.
US officials said Carter is making a private humanitarian visit to try to negotiate the release of Aijalon Gomes, sentenced to eight years of hard labor in a North Korean prison and fined some US$700,000 for entering the country illegally from China.
After securing Gomes’ release, Carter is expected to fly directly from Pyongyang to Boston with Gomes to reunite him with his family, a senior US official in Washington said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
However, there was no indication yesterday from Pyongyang on whether Carter had secured Gomes’ release, or who the former US leader was meeting. After arriving, he sat down for talks on Wednesday with No. 2 official Kim Yong-nam, TV news agency APTN reported.
It wasn’t clear whether Carter — who in 1994 famously had friendly talks with late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung — would meet with his son, Kim Jong-il.
US officials stress that Carter’s trip is an unofficial, private visit. However, visits like Carter’s — and the journey former president Bill Clinton made a year ago to secure the release of two US journalists — serve as more than just rescue missions. They also offer an opportunity for unofficial diplomacy between the US and North Korea, analysts say.
Gomes, who taught English in South Korea, was described by acquaintances as a devout Christian who may have followed an American friend, Robert Park, into North Korea. Park has said he crossed into the country deliberately in January to call attention to North Korea’s human rights record; he was expelled about 40 days later.
Last month, KCNA said Gomes, 31, attempted suicide, “driven by his strong guilty conscience, disappointment and despair at the US government that has not taken any measure for his freedom.”
US officials have pressed for his release on humanitarian grounds, but the State Department said officials who made a quiet trip to North Korea earlier this month failed to secure his release.
Gomes’ family is hoping North Korea will grant him amnesty, family spokeswoman Thaleia Schlesinger said.
“They certainly continue to be grateful to the government of North Korea for the care he was given the last couple of months since his suicide attempt,” she said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not