BEIJING – Speculation intensified Tuesday that North Korean leader KimJong-Un was in Beijing for a surprise visit, after Japanese media reportedthe arrival of a special North Korean train met by an honour guard undertight security.
If confirmed, it would mark Kim’s first overseas trip since coming to powerin 2011 and signal an intriguing twist in a fast-developing diplomaticexercise that has opened the door to separate summits between Kim and thepresidents of South Korea and the United States in the next few months.
Some analysts had suggested China — the North’s only major ally — had beensidelined by the overtures from Pyongyang to Seoul and Washington, but avisit by Kim would put Beijing firmly back at the centre of the diplomaticequation.
‘They’re concerned about being left out, with the North Koreans directlycutting a deal with the Americans that doesn’t necessarily reflect Chineseinterests,’ said Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism China Newsletter.
A possible visit was first reported by Japan’s Kyodo news agency, citingunidentified sources as saying that a high-ranking North Korean officialhad arrived in the Chinese capital on Monday afternoon.
Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV showed footage of a train — similar to thatused for foreign visits by Kim’s late father Kim Jong Il — pulling in toBeijing train station and being met by a military honour guard and a convoyof black limousines.
The manager of a store at the plaza outside the station said the stationhad been blocked off for a period in the afternoon with a heavy policepresence.
At the Diaoyutai guest house, where Kim Jong Il stayed during his visits toBeijing, there was an unusually heavy police presence with officersstationed every 50-100 metres in front of the imposing compound.
An AFP photographer saw a motorcade of limousines leave the guest houseunder a police escort on Tuesday morning.
*Official silence*
There was no mention of any visit by either the Chinese or North Koreanstate media, and a Chinese foreign ministry official told a regular pressbriefing Monday that she was unaware of reports that North Korean officialswere spotted at a train station in the northeastern border city of Dandong.- APP/AFP