North Korea's Kim appears to have entered China - report
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's hardline leader Kim Jong-il appears to have entered China, his isolated state's biggest benefactor, for a rare trip abroad as tensions are running high on the peninsula, reports said Monday.
China has the most influence in curbing the North's military grandstanding and Kim's previous trips to his neighbour have led to steps that have reduced security concerns for the economically vibrant region.
The trip to China would be the first in four years and comes at a time when Seoul is considering ways to respond to a suspected North Korean attack on one of its naval ships. South Korea lost 46 sailors in what could be one of the deadliest strikes since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
"We have confirmed the arrival of a special train at (the Chinese border city) Dandong, and we believe it is highly likely that Chairman Kim is on board," a South Korean government official told Yonhap news agency.
Yonhap had issued a similar report several weeks ago about a likely visit but had to revise its story after officials at the border said the train thought to have been carrying Kim was an ordinary cargo train without passengers.
In Dandong, witnesses said there was a heavy security presence along the river that serves as the border between the two countries, and around the city in a security lockdown that ended early Monday.
Yonhap said the train, thought to have carried Kim, crossed in the predawn hours with several hundred Chinese security agents sealing off the area around the train station.
The visit would be Kim's first trip abroad since a suspected stroke in 2008.
PUNISHING PYONGYANG
South Korea is expected to seek economic and political punishment against Pyongyang for the attack on the ship but avoid a revenge strike that might spark an escalating conflict between the rivals and devastate its own quickly recovering economy.
China also wants to prevent tensions that increase the chances of war but is not about to punish its neighbour, analysts said.
Kim is even more reliant on China's help after a botched currency reform at the end of last year worsened inflation and sparked rare civil unrest that raised questions about Kim's grip on power in the state his family has run for more than 60 years.
"The incident with the sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan has pushed North Korea into a complicated and difficult state of affairs," said Park Hyeong-jung, an expert on the North at the South's Korea Institute for National Unification.
Analysts said Kim may be heading to China seeking financial aid to prop up his state's staggering economy in return for a return to international nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks hosted by Beijing that Pyongyang has boycotted for over a year.
Kim's trip to China in 2000 was soon followed by a summit in Pyongyang with South Korea's leader and the start of two major joint development projects in North Korea. A China trip in 2004 led to a push for talks on the North's nuclear programs.
The North has come under pressure to return to six-country nuclear talks due to U.N. sanctions imposed after a May 2009 atomic test that have dealt a blow to its wobbly economy.
The North's official media did not announce his 2006 visit until after Kim's armoured train crossed the border and he was safely back in North Korea.
(Additional reporting by Royston Chan in Dandong, and Christine Kim, Rhee So-eui and Cheon Jong-woo in Seoul; Editing by jonathan Thatcher and Sanjeev Miglani)