Seoul: North Korea`s secretive leader Kim
Jong-Il is likely to visit China within a day or two, South
Korea`s Yonhap news agency said Sunday, quoting an unnamed
government source.
He "has not crossed into China yet, but it appears
highly likely that his Chinese trip would come either today or
tomorrow as a considerable level of preparations have been
done," the source told Yonhap.
The news agency said in a separate dispatch from
China`s border city of Dandong that police were beefing up
security at some hotels which overlook a railway bridge over
the Yalu River linking to North Korea.
Guests were being evicted from the hotels in the
presence of security police, and reservations are cancelled or
banned until May 3, it said.
"We have detected such signs in Dandong, and we are
closely monitoring situations," a foreign ministry official
told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Officials at the National Intelligence Service,
Seoul`s main spy agency, were not immediately available for
comment.
Kim`s trip to China had been widely forecast by South
Korean and Japanese media for around late April, but it did
not go ahead as predicted.
Seoul`s YTN television reported Sunday that Kim`s
trip might have been pushed back due to the heavy outside
media exposure and safety concerns.
North Korea`s number two leader Kim Yong-Nam met with
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday on the sidelines of the
World Expo in Shanghai but it was not known what they
discussed.
PTI
