North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was reportedly to meet the Chinese president in northeastern China yesterday as Kim seeks the backing of his sole ally for an expected handover of power to his son.
A 30-vehicle convoy believed to be carrying Kim pulled up at a hotel in the city of Changchun after driving about 90 minutes from Jilin, where the reclusive leader had stayed overnight, Yonhap news agency and YTN TV said.
Employees told reporters that all guest rooms and meeting rooms at the Changchun hotel were “fully booked,” with one saying “national-level meetings” were taking place in the building.
The officials said they did not know if Kim was there, after a train believed to be carrying the North Korean leader entered China on Thursday.
Yonhap quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), who was also believed to be in northeastern China, may hold talks with Kim in Changchun.
The ailing Kim might be accompanied to China by his 27-year-old son, Kim Jong-un, who is widely tipped to be named to the North Korean communist leadership at a rare party meeting early next month, analysts in Seoul said.
It will be only the third such gathering since the communist state was founded in 1948 and is seen as the most important party event since 1980, when Kim Jong-il was designated to succeed his own father.
An official at Seoul’s presidential Blue House said the apparent China trip by Kim Jong-il, who suffered a stroke in 2008, looked aimed at paving the way for an eventual power transfer to Kim Jong-un.
On Thursday, Kim Jong-il paid a visit to Jilin’s Yuwen Middle School. His father, communist North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung, attended the school from 1927 to 1930.
Kim Jong-il also visited a park where the remains of anti-Japanese independence fighters are buried, Yonhap said.
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