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Staff Reporter
North Korea appears to be pushing for a visit by its leader Kim Jong-il to China early this month, according to South Korean officials Wednesday.
Confirming media reports, Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said the trip appears to be highly likely, without giving further information.
``Our conclusion is that the North Korean leader could visit China soon,'' Kim told reporters. ``We are keeping a close eye on the situation.''
She failed to provide details, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
An advance team from North Korea is already in Beijing to arrange Kim's trip, Yonhap News Agency reported earlier in the day, citing anonymous sources from the South Korean government.
The report said that chances of the trip seem ``fairly high,'' noting that there has been unusual activity in Dandong near China's border with North Korea, and the Chinese capital of Beijing.
A senior official said, ``We have received some intelligence indicating Kim's imminent visit, although it is not decisive.''
In February, Wang Jiarui, a top Chinese Communist Party official, returning from a four-day visit to Pyongyang, said he conveyed to the North Korean leader an invitation to visit Beijing from Chinese President Hu Jintao.
A few weeks later, MBC reported that a group of Pyongyang officials, led by Kim Yong-il, director of the North Korean Workers Party's international department, visited Tianjin in an apparent move to prepare for the visit.
Kim's trip, if realized, could be a good sign of North Korea's return to the six-party denuclearization talks.
Observers say Kim may discuss with Hu urgent economic and political issues, such as seeking economic aid, gaining China's support for Kim's heir designate and consultations on the six-party talks.
Pyongyang withdrew from the talks in April last year after the United Nations slapped harsher sanctions on the country in response to its missile and nuclear tests.
The North has said it is willing in principle to rejoin negotiations, but has set two conditions - the lifting of U.N. sanctions and the United States agreeing to talks on a peace treaty.
The punitive measures have hit the North Korean economy hard.
It recently implemented a currency reform to stabilize the economy, but there have been signs that this deepened its people's economic hardship.
The situation was so severe that Pyongyang executed a senior financial official in a desperate attempt to quell public anger.
The last time Kim visited China was in 2006.
jj@koreatimes.co.kr
