THE TELEGRAPH: The reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is expected to arrive in Beijing later today for talks with China's president Hu Jintao as he seeks to shore up his country's bankrupt economy and negotiate a way out of the international diplomatic isolation of recent months.
Neither Beijing or Pyongyang has confirmed the visit, but Mr Kim, with his easily recognisable sunglasses and frizzy hair, was photographed in the port city of Dalian where he arrived on Monday from North Korea in his 17-carriage armoured train.
This visit came as South Korea moved closer to blaming the Pyongyang for the sinking of one of its warships last March in an incident that has further raised tensions between the two Koreas in recent weeks.
The South's president Lee Myung-Bak told a televised meeting of his chiefs of staff that it was clear that the sinking was not a "simple accident" and ordered a thorough review of Seoul's military readiness in light of the apparent attack on the 1,200 tonne corvette Cheonan.
Analysts said the sinking, which Pyongyang has denied, was expected to be on the agenda of talks with Chinese leaders along with the North's desperate need for economic aid, including food and fuel.
A disastrous attempt to reform the North Korean currency last November is thought to have deepened the country's economic woes, raising the threat of a repeat of the famines of the mid 1990s. >>> Peter Foster in Beijing | Tuesday, May 04, 2010
