N. Korean leader Kim apparently on visit to China

JILIN, China/SEOUL, Aug. 26 Kyodo -
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il appears to have started a visit to China in
Jilin Province after crossing the border by a special train in the early hours
of Thursday, sources familiar with China-North Korea relations said.
If confirmed, it would be his second trip to China this year after May. Kim
apparently visited a school in Jilin City in Jilin Province, northeastern
China, where North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung studied in the late 1920s, and a
park where a monument to an anti-Japanese movement stands, according to
diplomatic sources in Beijing.
Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist
Party, appeared to have toured the sites with Kim, the sources said.
Police tightened security around a hotel in Jilin City where Kim is believed to
be staying.
The diplomatic sources speculate that another visit by Kim to China in such a
short period of time may in some way be related to the succession of power to
his third son and heir apparent Jong Un.
Kim Jong Il may seek to strengthen communication with Chinese leadership on the
succession issue and create a stable path toward a smooth succession, including
an increase in economic aid from Beijing, they said.
There are rumors that Kim Jong Un may be accompanying his father on the trip.
North Korea watchers speculate that Kim Jong Un will join the leadership of the
Workers' Party of Korea at a party conference slated for early September,
paving the way for eventual succession.
Kim Jong Il's reported visit came a day after former U.S. President Jimmy
Carter arrived in Pyongyang to secure the release of an American sentenced in
May to eight years of hard labor for entering North Korea illegally in January.
One diplomatic source quoted unconfirmed information as saying that Carter may
have extended his stay in North Korea to wait for Kim's return to Pyongyang.
It was expected that Carter would leave Pyongyang for the United States on
Thursday. Carter met with North Korea's No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam, president of
the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, on Wednesday after arriving in
Pyongyang the same day, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency.
If the information is correct, Kim would return home in a few days without
traveling to Beijing.
As of 10 p.m. Thursday, North Korean media has made no reports about Kim's
reported visit to China and Carter's movements in North Korea during the day.
Earlier Thursday, a South Korean presidential office official said a special
train for Kim Jong Il crossed into China around midnight Wednesday, confirming
South Korean reports about the North Korean leader's trip to China.
China has so far made no official comment on a visit by Kim, chairman of North
Korea's National Defense Commission, who last visited China on May 3-7 for
talks with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders.
But Wu Dawei, China's special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs,
said, ''China and North Korea are close countries, and it's normal for a leader
(from one country) to make a visit (to the other).''
Wu made the comment upon arriving at Incheon International Airport, west of
Seoul, on Thursday for a three-day visit for talks with South Korean officials
on the resumption of the six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
Wu, however, declined to go into details about Kim Jong Il's reported visit to
China, saying he was not in a position to make comments about the issue.
==Kyodo