Did North Korea's Kim Jong-il take a secret train to China?
| Beijing
The leader of the world鈥檚 most unpredictable nuclear armed state, North Korea, which is facing possible economic meltdown and starvation, apparently arrived before dawn Monday on his first visit in four years to his closest ally, China.
All the world knows about this rare and potentially critical trip, however, is that the South Korean intelligence agency detected a 鈥渟pecial train鈥� at the Chinese border last night, that reporters camped out along the railroad line in China were removed by Chinese security, and that 鈥渁 group of Asians鈥� was seen entering a hotel in the Chinese city of Dalian on Monday morning, according to a South Korean TV station. Kyodo News published a photo of Kim Jong-il ducking into a 聽in Dalian on Sunday.
The extraordinary secrecy that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has imposed on everything to do with his country often prompts the observation that the description 鈥淣orth Korea expert鈥� is an oxymoron 鈥� a contradiction in terms.
The sometimes bizarre aspects of Mr. Kim鈥檚 behavior, though, such as his refusal to fly in airplanes and his penchant for luxuriously appointed trains, can obscure the grave state of his country.
Pressing agenda
If he is in fact in China, Kim is expected to ask his closest ally for help on a number of fronts to prop up his regime.
For a start, a bungled currency reform last year is thought to have made North Korea鈥檚 frightful food shortages even worse. Hundreds of thousands of people died of starvation in the mid-1990s, and the UN World Food Program says it will run out of aid next month. The North executed聽its former chief of economic planning in March as punishment for harming the country's currency.
Governments around the world, fed up with North Korea鈥檚 nuclear weapons tests, missile tests, and repeated refusals to abide by previous disarmament agreements, have simply lost their will to fund the WFP emergency food program.
At the same time, suspicions are centering on Pyongyang as South Korean investigators puzzle over an explosion聽in March on a South Korean naval vessel that killed 46 sailors. If Seoul concludes that a North Korean torpedo killed them, Kim鈥檚 regime will find itself suffering even more international opprobrium.
An awkward visit
China is in a bind; Beijing does not want to see its old ally collapse, which could spark a flood of refugees across the border. But Pyongyang has twice snubbed the Chinese government, ignoring its warnings not to hold nuclear tests.
If the Chinese are to go on helping Kim and his government, they will want something in return.
Look, perhaps, for an announcement that after a yearlong boycott, North Korea is prepared to rejoin the six party talks on nuclear disarmament that Beijing has chaired for the last several years.
Or don鈥檛, perhaps, look for anything. Maybe the 鈥淒ear Leader鈥� is not in China at all, and is simply having some fun with decoy trains and delegations at the expense of foreign intelligence services.
The last time Kim visited China, in January 2006, his trip was officially announced only after he returned home. So we鈥檒l just have to wait and see.
Related stories:
