North Korea's Kim makes new stop in marathon China tour

BEIJING: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il arrived in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing on Tuesday, reports said, his latest stop in a marathon trip believed aimed at learning the secrets of China's economic boom.

Kim's visit is his third in just over a year and the repeat trips are widely viewed as a bid by impoverished North Korea to land further trade and economic assistance from Beijing, its sole major ally and benefactor.

The North Korean leader also is believed to be keen to shore up Beijing's support for a plan to eventually transfer power to his son and designated successor, Kim Jong-Un.

Kim, 69, traveled to Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, in a roughly 40-car convoy with an armed police escort after two nights in the nearby city of Yangzhou, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

His special train, which transported him from North Korea, and down through northeastern and eastern China, also left for Nanjing from Yangzhou's railway station where it had been on standby, the agency said, quoting unnamed sources.

While in Yangzhou, Kim dined with former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, Yonhap said. Jiang was born in Yangzhou and held a meeting there with Kim's late father, North Korean founder Kim Il-Sung, in 1991.

Kim toured a Yangzhou industrial zone, including a manufacturer of solar power products, China's state-run Global Times said.

Wearing his trademark dark sunglasses, Kim also briefly visited a store where he "looked around at daily necessities, including rice and cooking oil," Yonhap quoted sales clerks as saying, adding that he bought nothing.

Details of Kim's visits are shrouded in secrecy with details officially divulged by both sides only after he has returned home. Yonhap has said the trip, which began Friday, was expected to last a week.

Kim's entourage checked into a state guesthouse in Nanjing, said Yonhap, which added he may be planning a trip to the nearby Chinese industrial hub Shanghai. Staff at the guesthouse declined comment to AFP.

North Korea's state-planned command economy remains crippled by severe shortages of power, raw materials, and persistent food shortages and his visit is believed intended to secure further trade and economic assistance.

During Kim's previous visit last August, Chinese President Hu Jintao urged him to undertake economic reforms.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday in Tokyo that Kim was invited to help Pyongyang learn about China's economic development and revive its own economy.

Overseas aid for North Korea is waning because of anger at its nuclear and missile development. International sanctions have been imposed to try to curb those programmes.

Six-party talks aimed at scrapping the nuclear programme in exchange for diplomatic and economic benefits have been stalled for more than two years.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011