N. Korean Leader Holds Talks With Chinese Pres.

N. Korean Leader Holds Talks With Chinese Pres.. August. 28, 2010 12:39. mungchii@donga.com kyle@donga.com.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il reportedly held talks Friday with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the second day of his surprise trip to China.

Kim is known to have been accompanied by his youngest son and heir apparent Jong Un.

A number of diplomatic sources said Hu, who was staying in northeastern China, went to Nanhu Hotel in Jilin Province for talks with Kim Jong Il.

Quoting a source in China, Choi Jae-sung, a lawmaker of South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party, said the North Korean leader apparently attended a luncheon Thursday in Jilin with a senior official of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.

Choi also said Kim Jong Un accompanied his father.

In Seoul, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek told a forum Friday at the National Assembly that circumstantial evidence suggests that Kim Jong Il took his son. Hyun said the North will hold next month a conference of its ruling Korean Workers` Party representatives and is in a dire situation.

This could mean Kim Jong Il’s trip to China is aimed at solidifying the father-to-son power succession and winning economic aid from Beijing.

The North Korean leader also left his hotel in Jilin Friday morning to head for Changchun. A motorcade of about 30 vehicles, including the one he was riding in, departed the hotel around 9 a.m., entered a highway, and arrived in Changchun in just 90 minutes.

Foreign news reports say Kim Jong Il was accompanied by Wang Jiarui, director of the international liaison department at the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.