Xinhua News, China’s official news agency released a photo of Chinese President Hu Jintao meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il , and has confirmed the secret meeting between the two leaders. The meeting was held in the northeast Jilin province, in the town of Changchun.
Kim was photographed hobnobbing with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese officials, and has been rumored to be with his 20 year old son, Kim Jong Un, the one who is being groomed to take his place as North Korea’s next leader.
The 68 year old North Korean leader made a nostalgic trip through northeastern China by train and visited the places where his father, Kim Il Sung started his revolutionary journey as a young guerrilla fighter against the Japanese during the 1920 occupation of Korea. Kim also took the time to visit Jilin Yuwen Middle School, the school where his father attended in the 1920s and was said to be the place where he first nurtured his anti-Japanese ideologies.
China has been North Korea’s main ally, since the Korean War started about 60 years ago. To this day, Beijing remains North Korea’s main provider of food assistance as well as strategic partner for trading North Korea’s oil. This trip aimed to solidify the North Korea-China ties as well as to prepare for the smooth succession of leadership, which many are speculating to happen soon, given that the North Korean leader’s health seems to be deteriorating.
Xinhua news also stated that during the two leaders’ meeting on Friday, Kim expressed his interests to resume the nuclear disarmament talks that was put on hold last year. He was shown embracing the Chinese leader in a television footage aired all over China.
