China invites N Korea leaders to visit Beijing
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
BEIJING, Oct 11 (AFP): Chinese President Hu Jintao has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and the country's new ruling line-up to visit China, state media said Monday, as Kim moves his son into position to succeed him.
The invitation was extended on Hu's behalf by a senior Chinese official who attended a massive military parade in Pyongyang Sunday to mark the North Korean ruling party's 65th anniversary, China's Xinhua news agency said.
Hu invited "General Secretary Kim Jong-Il and the comrades of the new central leadership of the DPRK (North Korea) to visit China at a convenient time," Chinese official Zhou Yongkang was quoted as telling Kim.
The parade, one of the largest for years in the hardline communist state, gave many North Koreans their first extensive look at heir apparent Kim Jong-Un, believed to be 27 years old but about whom little is known.
A rare live television broadcast of the event showed father and son standing near each other in a parade viewing area.
Jong-Un was catapulted from obscurity and into the limelight in late September with promotions to four-star general and to powerful ruling party posts.
Xinhua said Kim and the new leadership were "willing to travel frequently to China" and that the North Korean leader also had invited Hu to visit North Korea in future.
Kim has already visited China twice this year, the last visit in August seen by many analysts as a bid by the North Korean leader for Chinese support for the dynastic succession.
The impoverished but nuclear-armed nation ostensibly staged Sunday's event to mark the party's 65th anniversary, but it seemed designed to highlight the start of a second dynastic succession process.
Kim Jong-Il took over from his own father and founding president Kim Il-Sung, who died in 1994.
The leader suffered a stroke two years ago and has since apparently speeded up plans to put an eventual successor in place, even though he does not appear in a hurry to step down.
The Swiss-educated Jong-Un remains a mystery to the outside world. Until late September his name had never been carried by official media nor had a photo of the chubby youth been issued.
The North is locked in a dispute with the West over its nuclear weapons and is struggling to revive its crumbling command economy and feed its 24 million people.
The invitation was extended on Hu's behalf by a senior Chinese official who attended a massive military parade in Pyongyang Sunday to mark the North Korean ruling party's 65th anniversary, China's Xinhua news agency said.
Hu invited "General Secretary Kim Jong-Il and the comrades of the new central leadership of the DPRK (North Korea) to visit China at a convenient time," Chinese official Zhou Yongkang was quoted as telling Kim.
The parade, one of the largest for years in the hardline communist state, gave many North Koreans their first extensive look at heir apparent Kim Jong-Un, believed to be 27 years old but about whom little is known.
A rare live television broadcast of the event showed father and son standing near each other in a parade viewing area.
Jong-Un was catapulted from obscurity and into the limelight in late September with promotions to four-star general and to powerful ruling party posts.
Xinhua said Kim and the new leadership were "willing to travel frequently to China" and that the North Korean leader also had invited Hu to visit North Korea in future.
Kim has already visited China twice this year, the last visit in August seen by many analysts as a bid by the North Korean leader for Chinese support for the dynastic succession.
The impoverished but nuclear-armed nation ostensibly staged Sunday's event to mark the party's 65th anniversary, but it seemed designed to highlight the start of a second dynastic succession process.
Kim Jong-Il took over from his own father and founding president Kim Il-Sung, who died in 1994.
The leader suffered a stroke two years ago and has since apparently speeded up plans to put an eventual successor in place, even though he does not appear in a hurry to step down.
The Swiss-educated Jong-Un remains a mystery to the outside world. Until late September his name had never been carried by official media nor had a photo of the chubby youth been issued.
The North is locked in a dispute with the West over its nuclear weapons and is struggling to revive its crumbling command economy and feed its 24 million people.