Reporters have followed a motorcade - apparently used by
the reclusive Kim - around several cities in northeast China. The 35-vehicle
convoy accompanied by police cars with flashing lights was seen headed to the
train station in Changchun on Saturday.
In a photograph carried by Japan's Kyodo News agency, a
man in a khaki jumpsuit with thinning hair believed to be Kim is seen shaking
hands at the train station with a man it identified as a senior Chinese
official. The two men are standing on a red carpet and are surrounded by many
officials.
Kim rarely leaves North Korea and when he does he travels
by special train. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Sunday that Kim was
believed to have traveled to Yanbian, a Korean autonomous prefecture in the far
northeastern Chinese province of Jilin bordering North Korea, after leaving
Changchun.
Kim is believed to have toured the cities of Yanji, Tumen
and Hunchun in Yanbian, Yonhap reported, citing an unidentified source in
Beijing. It said Kim was expected to return home later Sunday.
Kim's visit to the cities may be related to China's plans
to develop its northeastern regions, Yonhap speculated. It said China wants to
continue using North Korea's port of Rajin and hopes to obtain permission to
use other ports as well.
North Korea does not announce Kim's trips until after he
returns home, and China has refused to say if he is in the country, even though
a Japanese television station had a grainy picture of him.
Kim was reportedly accompanied by his son, Kim Jong Un,
believed to be in his 20s. Many North Korea watchers predict the son will be
appointed to a key party position at a ruling Workers' Party meeting early next
month - the first such gathering in decades.
To pull off the event with sufficient fanfare, North
Korea will need Chinese aid, particularly following the devastating floods that
battered the country's northwest this month, analysts said.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper and Yonhap both
reported that Kim was believed to have met Chinese President Hu Jintao in
Changchun on Friday. The Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said the two are believed to
have discussed the North's succession, the resumption of six-nation talks on
North Korea's nuclear program, and ways to strengthen bilateral economic cooperation.
Kim also badly needs Chinese aid because of flooding
earlier this month that damaged or destroyed more than 7,000 homes, and
inundated 17,800 acres of farmland close to the border with China, the North's
official Korean Central News Agency reported this week.
KCNA said China has already agreed to deliver some aid to
help North Korea cope with the disaster but didn't give specifics.
The North faces chronic food shortages and has relied on
outside aid to feed much of its 24 million people since a famine that is
believed to have killed as many as 2 million people in the 1990s.
In an attempt to improve its meager economy, it has
experimented with limited market reforms and sought foreign investment, mostly
from China and South Korea. But tensions with the South have caused trade and
joint economic projects with the South to wither and raised the importance of
ties to Beijing.
