By DPA,
Beijing/Seoul : North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is believed to prepare to leave China for home following a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, South Korean media reported Saturday.
The secretive North Korean leader visited China for three days, a trip, which observers believe is related to Kim’s succession plans for the regime in Pyongyang.
Kim’s convoy left his hotel in the northeastern city of Changchun early Saturday and travelled to a nearby agricultural university, the Yonhap news agency reported, quoting witnesses.
Kim’s special train was standing by at Changchun’s railway station.
Yonhap quoted an official in Seoul as saying that his government had intelligence that Kim and Hu met Friday in Changchun. Hu was reported to have travelled to the region for a vacation.
“After holding a summit (with Hu) yesterday, we believe Kim is inspecting industrial facilities in Changchun today,” Yonhap quoted a South Korean diplomatic source as saying. “Chances are high for Kim to return home this evening after wrapping up his itinerary.”
Observers were speculating on the purpose of the trip because it is the first time Kim, who was in Beijing in May, has visited China twice in one year.
It was thought that 68-year-old Kim, who is said to have suffered a stroke in 2008, was preparing to hand power to his third and youngest son.
Kim may hope to win the approval of Beijing, North Korea’s main political and economic supporter, for the succession of Kim Jong Un, about whom little is known other than he is thought to be in his 20s.
South Korean officials said he might have accompanied his father on the visit.
Analysts have suggested that Kim Jong Un’s youth and inexperience are a concern to his father, and support from China is seen as crucial for the power succession.
“Unlike Kim Jong Il, who was groomed for many years before succession, the 28-year-old son is a new face who has not had sufficient time to gain governing experience, cultivate connections and build a base of authority within the ruling party and army. And that is what worries the current leader most,” Liu Ming, director of the Korean Peninsula Research Centre at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
Kim was also believed to have discussed economic aid for the impoverished Stalinist state.
His trip to China was confirmed by neither Pyongyang nor Beijing, but previous visits have been announced only once they are over, reportedly out of security concerns.
Former US president Jimmy Carter arrived back in the United States Friday together with an American man who had been imprisoned in North Korea since the beginning of the year.
Carter had flown to Pyongyang Wednesday to lobby for the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, 30, who was arrested in January and sentenced in April to eight years of hard labour for illegally entering North Korea from China. North Korea said the release was made on humanitarian grounds.
During his visit, Carter met with North Korea’s number two leader, Kim Yong Nam, and reportedly held talks on North Korea’s disputed nuclear programme.