N.Korean leader visits China, possibly for successor talks - media
07:20 26/08/2010
MOSCOW, August 26 (RIA Novosti) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly paid a visit to China on Thursday morning, possibly to discuss his possible successor, South Korean media said.
"Signs have been detected that Chairman Kim visited China early Thursday morning. We are still trying to grasp his exact destination and the purpose of the visit," an unnamed senior South Korean government official told South Korea's Yonhap agency.
Observers told Yonhap that the presumed visit of the 68-year-old leader "may be related to his plan to hand over his power to his third son, Jong-un." They hint that the succession process may be accelerated "through a conference of its [North Korea's] ruling Workers' Party to be convened in early September."
The South Korean news channel YTN reported that Jong-un accompanied Kim during the trip.
Neither Beijing, nor Pyongyang confirmed the media reports. The two states have traditionally been reticent about such information, apparently for security reasons.
The visit comes amid Beijing's and Pyongyang's efforts to resume the long-stalled six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear program. It also coincides with mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula caused by the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March, which Seoul blamed on the North.
The Chinese authorities previously declined to comment on media reports that Kim visited China in early May, just over a month after South Korea's Cheonan warship sunk under unexplained circumstances near the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea, causing the loss of 46 lives.
Kim visited China in 2000, 2004 and 2006. The Chinese and North Korean authorities traditionally inform the public of such visits after they have been carried out.
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