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North Korean leader visits China's capitalist heartland |
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January 18, 2001
SHANGHAI-- (AP) - North Korea's secretive leader, Kim Jong Il, might have toured a Japanese semiconductor factory Wednesday. And he might be preparing to visit the Shanghai Stock Exchange. But like the rest of Kim's hardline communist regime, his trip to study firsthand the fruits of Chinese reform were shrouded in a mania for secrecy. Reporters spotted Kim on Wednesday evening leaving Shanghai's Grand Theatre after what theater employees had said was to be a gala private concert of folk songs and orchestra music. Kim, wearing a dark coat and surrounded by Chinese and North Korean officials, got into a waiting limousing without giving any sign he saw reporters kept behind a fence about 25 yards (meters) away. A row of Chinese guards tried to block their view of Kim as his motorcade sped away. Other events on the North Korean leader's itinerary were more mysterious. The Japanese newspaper Asahi reported that Kim spent 30 minutes Wednesday morning at an NEC Corp. joint-venture factory. The report said he met managers of the 2-year-old plant, which NEC says is China's most advanced producer of semiconductors. People who answered the phone at the factory offices denied knowing anything about the visit. A Chinese official confirmed Tuesday that Kim was in the country, but said the visit wouldn't be formally announced until after he returned home. In Seoul, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said the North Korean leader's trip was a big boost for rapprochement between the rival Koreas. He said it shows the North wants to imitate Chinese market reforms. "North Korea is out there to pursue big changes," the South Korean leader said in remarks quoted by his chief spokesman. "North Korea appears to be trying to become a second China." South Korean officials believe the visit augurs well for Kim Jong Il's plan to visit South Korea this year for a second Korean summit. Kim is accompanied in Shanghai by Premier Zhu Rongji, China's top economic official, according to South Korean media. Government spokesmen in Beijing and Shanghai have refused to confirm that Kim is visiting. South Korean commentators say Kim wants to study Chinese reforms in hopes of reviving North Korea's decrepit economy, which is suffering famine after decades of mismanagement and the loss of Soviet subsidies. This is Kim's second trip to China in eight months and his first known venture into Shanghai, the thriving heart of capitalist-style reforms. His visit last May was Kim's first known foreign travel since coming to China in 1983. In a major ideological leap, Kim also was said to be considering a visit to the most visible symbol of China's abandonment of radical leftist economics - the Shanghai Stock Exchange. An exchange employee, who asked not to be identified further, said she had heard of plans for a visit but no formal announcement. A spokeswoman for the exchange could not confirm any such plans. Employees at two high-tech firms in Shanghai's newly developed Pudong industrial district said they had received notice to be prepared for a possible visit. Kim was staying at the hotel attached to the Shanghai International Convention Center, according to people who work in the area. Police had cleared the area around the center, which overlooks the Pudong River, and closed an adjacent riverside park. At midday Wednesday, a 35-car motorcade - including three stretch Mercedes Benz limousines with curtains across the back windows - pulled up at the hotel out of sight of spectators. A doorman at the hotel, asked whether Kim was a guest there, said, "It's a work secret. I can't say." |