By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is likely to go to China next month, as a group of Pyongyang officials are currently visiting Tianjin in an apparent move to prepare for his visit to the city, reports said Friday.
Kim Yong-il, director of the North Korean Workers' Party's international department, heads the group that includes economic bureaucrats.
Kim's delegation arrived in China earlier this week, following a visit by his Chinese counterpart Wang Jiarui to Pyongyang earlier this month.
According to MBC, he visited the city Wednesday, along with a group of 10 Pyongyang officials.
The group met with Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao Tuesday and delivered a message from Kim Jong-il to the Chinese leader, the broadcaster reported.
The North Korean leader visited Tianjin in 2004 as part of efforts to learn about China's economic development. China wants to develop the city ― currently a base for light industrial products ― into a special economic zone like Shanghai.
Pyongyang withdrew from the six-party talks last April 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 the talks, but has set two conditions - the lifting of sanctions and the United States agreeing to talks on a peace pact on the peninsula.
The United Nations is retaining its position that it could ease sanctions if there is substantial progress in the nuclear talks.
The punitive measures have hit the economy hard in a country that has relied on foreign aid to feed its people since it suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr
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