SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il appeared to be heading home from China Saturday, with Beijing`s diplomatic and financial support for an eventual handover of power to his son, news reports said.
Kim left a hotel in northeastern China on Saturday where he is believed to have met China`s President Hu Jintao, according to South Korean media.
YTN TV and Yonhap news agency said a convoy of around 20 cars, protected by 10 Chinese security vehicles, left the hotel in the city of Changchun at 9:05am (0005 GMT).
The convoy apparently stopped by an international food exhibition site in Changchun and a nearby cinema set before heading home, they said.
Earlier, a container truck which was believed to be carrying luggage belonging to Kim`s entourage left for the city`s railway station where Kim`s special train was on standby, Yonhap said.
South Korean officials said Kim was likely to return home Saturday after securing massive economic aid and diplomatic support from China for its impoverished communist neighbour.
"President Hu, who had been on leave somewhere in northeastern China, went to Changchun to meet Chairman Kim," an unidentified intelligence official was quoted as saying by the Chosun daily.
"Chairman Kim is likely to return home on a special train as early as Saturday," the official said.
Hu`s meeting with Kim during the Chinese leader`s summer holiday echoed the informal summits of former US president George W. Bush, who invited his closest allies to his private ranch, the Chosun daily said.
"It looks like China wants to show off its strong alliance with the North toward the United States and South Korea," the official said.
Kim`s China trip comes amid simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula following the North`s alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship in March, which killed 46 sailors.
The United States and South Korea have been carrying out a series of military exercises, including a naval drill in the sensitive Yellow Sea, sparking angry reactions and counter-exercises from China.
The ailing Kim might have been accompanied to China by his 27-year-old son, Kim Jong-Un, who is widely tipped to be elected to the North`s leadership at a rare party meeting early next month, analysts in Seoul said.
Kyungnam University Professor Kim Keun-Sik said the isolated North has nowhere else to turn but to its staunch ally China, for aid and support for power transition at a time of tense confrontation with South Korea and the United States.
"China is also sending a message to the world that it will never let the North go down as the United States and South Korea have been flexing military muscles and tightening screws on the North," he told AFP.
Washington is likely to announce new sanctions against Pyongyang in the coming weeks as the South snubbed Beijing`s proposal for informal talks aimed to paving the way for six-party talks on North Korea`s nuclear disarmament.
Paik Hak-Soon of the Sejong Institute said Hu`s meeting with Kim after only a three-month hiatus was highly symbolic.
"China believes South Korea is becoming like a pawn for the United States, which seeks to curb China`s growing influence in the region... This is something grave for the future of South Korea and China ties," he said.
But Korea University Professor Yoo Ho-Yeol said China was seeking to calm the situation and persuade the North to return to dialogue in return for economic aid and support for its third-generation, hereditary succession.
BDST: 1013 HRS, August 28, 2010
