Kim, Hu
discuss widening economic cooperation
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
held summit talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Wednesday apparently on boosting
economic cooperation and resolving deadlock over Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Sunday that
Kim's trip, the third in just more than one year, is aimed at learning from
China's market-oriented reforms, expansion of bilateral economic relationship
and provision of additional economic aid to the poverty-stricken North appeared
to be the dominant agenda at the summit held at the Great Hall of the People.
Kim's arrival in Beijing earlier Wednesday came
after the reclusive leader toured various industrial facilities, including an
auto plant, an electronics producer, a discount store and an IT company in
northeastern and central eastern Chinese cities, such as Changchun, Yangzhou
and Nanjing, over the past six days.
Details of the summit, let alone Kim's itinerary, have not been available as
North Korea and China remain almost silent on his trip shrouded, as is typical,
in secrecy.
Sources say that Kim and Hu held in-depth discussions
on expanding the North-bound food aid, revitalizing economic cooperation and
increasing Chinese firms' investment in the North, among others.
They note that a large number of Chinese leaders and ranking officials also
attended a welcome dinner for Kim held after the summit talks. Indeed, Chinese
State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the Central
Committee of China's Communist Party, are known to have closely accompanied Kim
on his Chinese trip that began last Friday, displaying deepening friendship
between the two allies.
Kim's motorcade entered the Great Hall of the People at 5:30 p.m. (local time)
and left at 8:45 p.m. for the Diaoyutai State
Guesthouse, meaning the two leaders spent over three hours together at summit
talks and dinner.
Earlier on Wednesday, the 69-year-old Kim arrived at the Beijing guest house
after wrapping up a 19-hour ride through China's eastern areas from Nanjing
aboard his special train.
In accordance with a long-standing custom, Kim is believed to have already held
talks with Premier Wen shortly after his arrival at
the Diaoyutai. The North Korean leader is expected to
leave for Pyongyang Thursday.
he North has vowed to become a prosperous country by
2012, but it is still struggling to feed its people amid a nuclear standoff
with the United States, South Korea and other regional powers.
The nuclear row keeps the United States from normalizing ties with the North,
which is under U.N. sanctions over its nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. That
hindered Pyongyang's efforts to attract outside investment, a key to improving
the economy.
Against the backdrop, the North is seeking to boost economic cooperation with
China, the North's last remaining ally and benefactor.
Among a number of projects under discussion, the two neighbors plan to turn an
island in the Yalu River on their border into an
industrial complex.
Still, Kim was expected to touch on the sensitive issue of his hereditary power
succession plan to try to win endorsement from China, said the sources.
Kim, who inherited power from his late father and North Korean founder Kim
Il-sung, has taken steps to extend his family dynasty into a third generation
since he suffered a stroke in 2008.
He named his youngest son, Jong-un, vice chairman of
the Central Military Commission of the North's ruling Workers' Party and a four-star
general last year in the clearest sign yet to make him the next North Korean
leader.
The summit came five days after Kim crossed the border and toured major cities
in China's northeastern and southeastern areas on what appears to be a study
tour of China's vibrant economy.
Hu indirectly urged Kim to open his isolated country
during their previous summit held in the northeastern city of Changchun last
August.
Kim has so far visited an automaker, IT companies, a solar energy company and a
large discount store as well as a top electronics company as he traveled about
5,000 kilometers across China's northeastern and southeastern regions before
reaching Beijing.
China has repeatedly pressed its impoverished ally to follow in its footsteps
in embracing the reform that lifted millions of Chinese out of poverty and
helped Beijing's rise to the world's second-largest economy.
North Korea appears to be concerned that outside influences associated with
reform and openness could undermine its control on its 24 million people and
eventually pose a threat to its regime's survival.
North Korea's dependence on China for diplomatic and economic aid has been on
the rise amid its isolation from the international community over its nuclear
ambitions. The North conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing
international condemnation and U.N. sanctions.
On Tuesday, the United States said it imposed sanctions on a North Korean firm
and 15 other foreign firms for trading equipment and technology for the
production of weapons of mass destruction.
The trade volume between North Korea and China stood at US$3.46 billion in
2010, up from $2.68 billion in 2009, according to South Korea's Unification
Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.
Kim's ongoing trip is likely to serve as a litmus test on whether it is serious
about reform and openness.
The North's experiment with limited reforms backfired in recent years,
deepening the country's economic woes with no relief in sight anytime soon.
In March, the U.N. food agency appealed for 430,000 tons of food aid to feed 6
million vulnerable North Korean people, a quarter of the country's population.
Robert King, the U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights, is visiting North
Korea to assess the North's food situation, a possible indication of the
resumption of food aid to the North.
The summit also comes amid no signs of progress to resume long-stalled talks
aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs. The talks involve the two
Koreas, the United States, host China, Russia and Japan.
The North has expressed its willingness to rejoin the nuclear talks that it
quit in 2009, but Seoul and Washington demand that Pyongyang first demonstrate
its denuclearization commitment by action.
Seoul also wants Pyongyang to apologize for its two deadly attacks on the South
last year.
Source: The Korea Herald