Kim tours Nanjing and heads northwest

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is spotted leaving a vehicle in an image captured by a Chinese bystander in Nanjing during Kim’s fifth day in China yesterday. [YONHAP]

After finishing a relaxing day in Yangzhou, complete with boat ride on a picturesque river, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il hopped in a car and sped south to Nanjing on his fifth day in China.

Kim left Yangzhou at 8:30 a.m. local time and arrived in Nanjing roughly two hours later. After arriving, Kim was seen visiting Panda Electronics, a Chinese electronics manufacturing company established in 1936. He checked into the Nanjing Dongjiao State Guesthouse and went out once more to see Olympic Sports Center, on the outskirts of the city, and the Nanjing Museum, one of China’s largest museums.

Kim ate lunch at the guesthouse, which his father, North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, stayed at during a visit in 1991.

While in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, a plane from North Korea’s Koryo Airlines was spotted on standby at a nearby airport.

After lunch, Kim boarded his special train and headed northwest. If he was headed to Beijing for a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, the train ride would take around 14 hours.

After Kim left, the Yangzhou State Guesthouse was still adorned with welcome messages on banners and electronic billboards. The suites Kim and his party occupied usually cost between 18,800 yuan ($2,890) and 36,260 yuan for an overnight stay.

Kim Jong-il’s seemingly restless trip through China has been difficult to track because of painstaking security measures the Chinese government has implemented to conceal his movements.

But the JoongAng Ilbo witnessed some of Kim’s movements in Yangzhou, and heard about others from local residents.

A South Korean diplomatic source told the JoongAng Ilbo that the Chinese government had informed Seoul of Kim’s visit almost immediately after he crossed into China.

“Just an hour or two after Kim Jong-il crossed the border between North Korea and China, Beijing informed us on the condition of secrecy,” said the source.

Beijing has never informed Seoul about Kim’s trips to China in the past.

“We believe that China chose to tell us almost immediately after Kim Jong-il’s departure because for his past two visits, China was criticized for not confirming the facts,” the source said.

“The South Korean government kept silent until late in the afternoon on May 20,” the source added. “We had no choice but to watch the media get it wrong in reporting it was Kim Jong-un, Kim’s son, who had gone across the border in the train. We couldn’t say anything else to the media except that it was a special train that had crossed into China.”

The diplomatic source said it was probably a “mistake” for a South Korean government official to confirm that Kim Jong-il was taking the trip considering the agreement with Beijing.

By Christine Kim, Kang Chan-ho [christine.kim@joongang.co.kr]

한글 관련 기사 [중앙일보]
김정일, 베이징으로 … 오늘 후진타오 만날 듯
방중 5일째 동선

김정일 북한 국방위원장이 24일 오후 2시쯤(현지시간) 장쑤(江蘇)성 난징(南京)역을 출발해 베이징(北京) 방향으로 북상했다. 한 외교 소식통은 “이에 따라 이르면 25일 후진타오(胡錦濤·호금도) 중국 국가주석과 정상회담을 할 가능성이 커졌다”고 말했다. 정상회담을 할 경우 김 위원장은 후 주석에게 김정은 후계체제 지원을 요청할 것으로 보인다. 김 위원장은 22일 장쩌민(江澤民·강택민) 전 국가주석을 만났을 때도 같은 요청을 했다.

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