VARIOUS: North Korea's Kim Jong-un takes the next big step to succeeding leader Kim Jong-il by visiting China, according to South Korean media

Record ID: 475959

  • Title: VARIOUS: North Korea's Kim Jong-un takes the next big step to succeeding leader Kim Jong-il by visiting China, according to South Korean media
  • Date: 21st May 2011
  • Summary: CHANGCHUN, JILIN PROVINCE, CHINA (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (FILE - AUGUST 2010) (CCTV - NO ACCESS CHINA) CHINESE GOVERNMENT BUILDING NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG-IL AND CHINESE PRESIDENT HU JINTAO SHAKING HANDS AND EMBRACING CAMERAMEN FILMING KIM AND HU POSING FOR PHOTO WHILST SHAKING HANDS KIM AND HU WALKING ON HALL CAMERAMEN FILMING HU SPEAKING KIM LISTENING MEETING IN P
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Democratic People's Republic of, China, Korea, Republic of
  • City:
  • Country: Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAB3TY6ZX0MB2A3MKXWQTHIA3Z
  • Story Text: The heir-apparent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived in China on Friday (May 20), possibly with his uncle and political minder, South Korean media reported, in his first official trip outside the isolated state.
    Kim Jong-un had arrived by train in Tumen, in the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin, Yonhap news agency quoted a source in Tumen as saying. It reported that a government official in Seoul said he was unlikely to go to Beijing.
    The North Korean embassy in Beijing seemed quiet on Friday morning and no official information was available from either the North Korean or Chinese sides.
    South Korea's spy agency had been expecting the visit for months. Media reports said the trip was most likely designed to further economic ties between the neighbours and could involve visits to joint projects on their border.
    But a spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, Chun Hae-sung said there was no official confirmation of the visit.
    "Up to now, neither North Korean nor Chinese administration has confirmed or announced Kim Jong-un's visit to China. And there's no report of it by any official media in China and North Korea. Our government has been out watching it cautiously," Chun said at a news briefing.
    Reclusive North Korea is preparing for a third generation of Kim family rule, with the young and inexperienced Kim Jong-un poised to take over from his father to run the autocratic state born out of the Cold War.
    The 27 or 28-year-old Kim is undertaking possibly one of the most crucial diplomatic moves he will ever make by introducing himself to China, the destitute North's main benefactor.
    The youngest of the leader's three sons, little is known about Kim, not even his age. He was most likely born in 1984.
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