ID :
186149
Thu, 06/02/2011 - 17:16
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http://m.oananews.org//node/186149
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N. Korean leader unlikely to have met Jiang Zemin: sources
SEOUL, June 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may not have met former Chinese President Jiang Zemin during his recent trip to China, informed sources said Thursday.
Last Monday, Kim visited an economic development zone and a discount store in the eastern city of Yangzhou during a trip apparently designed to study China's economic reform. Jiang reportedly lives in Yangzhou.
"There is no way to confirm whether Kim met Jiang, but a meeting is highly unlikely to have taken place given information we have," a source said, asking not to be named.
Kim's trip to Yangzhou was also viewed as his bid to broaden support for his hereditary succession plan by meeting with Jiang, who is still believed to wield considerable clout on the Chinese political landscape.
Kim met with Jiang on his previous trips to China in 2000, 2001 and 2004. His father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, also met with Jiang in Yangzhou in 1991. Jiang was general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1989-2009 and president of China from 1993-2003.
According to the sources, Jiang has a negative stance toward Kim's power transfer to his third son, Jong-un.
During a week-long trip that started on May 20, Kim visited the northeast and east as well as Beijing, where he met President Hu Jintao and other top officials.
Kim's visit to China, the North's foremost benefactor, came as his regime is struggling to feed its impoverished population and prop up a collapsing economy.
China also hosts six-party nuclear talks designed to wean Pyongyang from its nuclear ambitions.
China proposed earlier this year that North and South Korea hold direct denuclearization talks as a step toward the resumption of the talks that also include the U.S., Russia and Japan.
The multilateral talks, which Seoul and Washington say should not reopen until Pyongyang makes tangible steps toward nuclear dismantlement, were last held in 2008.
sam@yna.co.kr
(END)
Last Monday, Kim visited an economic development zone and a discount store in the eastern city of Yangzhou during a trip apparently designed to study China's economic reform. Jiang reportedly lives in Yangzhou.
"There is no way to confirm whether Kim met Jiang, but a meeting is highly unlikely to have taken place given information we have," a source said, asking not to be named.
Kim's trip to Yangzhou was also viewed as his bid to broaden support for his hereditary succession plan by meeting with Jiang, who is still believed to wield considerable clout on the Chinese political landscape.
Kim met with Jiang on his previous trips to China in 2000, 2001 and 2004. His father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, also met with Jiang in Yangzhou in 1991. Jiang was general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1989-2009 and president of China from 1993-2003.
According to the sources, Jiang has a negative stance toward Kim's power transfer to his third son, Jong-un.
During a week-long trip that started on May 20, Kim visited the northeast and east as well as Beijing, where he met President Hu Jintao and other top officials.
Kim's visit to China, the North's foremost benefactor, came as his regime is struggling to feed its impoverished population and prop up a collapsing economy.
China also hosts six-party nuclear talks designed to wean Pyongyang from its nuclear ambitions.
China proposed earlier this year that North and South Korea hold direct denuclearization talks as a step toward the resumption of the talks that also include the U.S., Russia and Japan.
The multilateral talks, which Seoul and Washington say should not reopen until Pyongyang makes tangible steps toward nuclear dismantlement, were last held in 2008.
sam@yna.co.kr
(END)
