By Kim Young-jin
North Korea’s state run media on Sunday reported the return of leader Kim Jong-il the previous day from a “successful” trip to Russia and China, saying he was greeted at a border train station by his youngest son and heir, Jong-un.
The 69-year-old leader focused on the possible resumption of stalled negotiations on Pyongyang’s denuclearization and economic cooperation during the week-long trip during which he met with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
On Saturday, he "was warmly greeted at the border railway station by Kim Jong-un," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, “after successfully winding up his visit.”
The report confirmed that Jong-un did not make the journey, though many speculated his father tried to win support for the tricky hereditary power transfer underway.
The trip, which began Aug. 20, apparently sought to add momentum to efforts to resume the six-party denuclearization forum and win aid to prop up the North’s flagging economy.
A recent flurry of diplomacy, including rare bilateral contact between the two Koreas, have raised hopes over the stalled forum, which fell apart in 2009 when the North walked away in response to international sanctions over its program.
China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying he was ready to “fully implement the September 19 joint statement along with all sides," referring to a 2005 agreement in which North Korea promised to abandon its nuclear program. The Kremlin said Kim would place a moratorium on nuclear and ballistic missile tests if the talks resumed.
His offers have received a lukewarm response in Seoul and Washington, which want him to take bolder steps to prove its genuine intent to denuclearize. The allies also want Pyongyang to address its recently-disclosed uranium enrichment program that provides a second track to nuclear weapons.
Pessimism over the offer is likely driven by Pyongyang’s tactic of offering concessions in a bid to extract aid, then blocking progress and raising tensions with provocative acts.
The North is making all-out efforts to secure aid ahead of next year, when it has promised to emerge as a powerful country, analysts say, prompting speculation he tried to gain further assistance from the two neighbors.
Such assistance would help it win support for the power transfer amid food shortages and massive flood damage in the impoverished state, watchers say.
Analysts say the junior Kim, thought to be no older than 29, has been busy garnering support among the North’s military and political elite since emerging as heir apparent nearly a year ago.
On the trip, the mercurial leader also offered his support for a coveted Russian proposal to build a pipeline though the Korean peninsula to sell gas to the South, though many are pessimistic on the project as Pyongyang could use it as leverage against Seoul.
Kim’s trip included tours of a Siberian hydroelectric plant as well as industrial facilities in China’s northeast. Beijing is pushing for its ally to follow its path of economic reform.