Seoul, May 05: North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Il was reportedly visiting a key Chinese port on Wednesday ahead of summit talks in Beijing, on his first trip abroad in years to secure much-needed economic aid.
The 68-year-old Kim, who arrived in China on Monday, is expected to offer Beijing reassurances that it will return to nuclear disarmament talks it abandoned more than a year ago, in exchange for economic aid and investment.
North Korea is under tough UN sanctions over its refusal to halt its atomic drive, and its economy suffered a new blow last November when a currency reform backfired, wiping out people’s savings and sending prices soaring.
China is Pyongyang’s sole major ally and its main source of finance, food and fuel. It is also seen as the only country with any ability to put pressure on Kim’s hardline regime.
Kim apparently was visiting the port city of Tianjin southeast of Beijing on Wednesday before heading to the capital for talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, citing unnamed sources.
“It is predicted that the summit talks between North Korea and China will be held on Thursday,” Yonhap quoted an unidentified source in Beijing as saying.
The reclusive North Korean leader has also visited dock and industrial facilities in and around Dalian in the northeast — suggesting he wants to learn how to boost his own country’s port cities as a way to increase trade.
Analysts said Kim would seek both aid and investment from China in return for concessions on the nuclear issue.
“While economic aid is just an old practice, investment in the DPRK will surely help the country acquire more capacity to develop,” Cheng Xiaohe, a scholar at Renmin University in Beijing, told the China Daily.
The North has said it will not return to the six-party disarmament talks grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States until UN sanctions are lifted and the US agrees to talks on a formal peace treaty.
US and South Korean officials have said the sinking of a South Korean warship in March — which was ripped apart by an external blast, killing 46 sailors — has made an early resumption of the six-party talks less likely.
Seoul has hinted the incident could be Pyongyang’s fault. The North has denied all responsibility.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the next move on disarmament talks was up to North Korea.
“There are five countries on the same page with respect to the six-party process. There’s one country that is not — North Korea,” Crowley said Tuesday, adding that China was in a prime position to make some headway with Kim.
“We would trust that is there are meetings with high-level Chinese officials that they will stress, as we do, that the only route forward for North Korea is through the six-party process.”
Kim’s trip to China — his first in four years — is shrouded in mystery and has not been officially confirmed by either Beijing or Pyongyang. Both governments often refrain from comment until Kim is safely back home.
The North Korean leader, who is said to dislike air travel, has visited China four times since 2000, each time by train. He is thought to have suffered a stroke in mid-2008.
Yonhap quoted diplomats as saying Kim would stay at Diaoyutai Guest House in Beijing before heading home. Hu is scheduled to begin a visit to Russia at the end of the week.
—Agencies