N. Korea’s Kim heads home from China

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il was apparently preparing to return home from China yesterday, with Beijing’s diplo­matic and financial support for an eventual handover of power to his son, reports said.

A convoy of some 20 cars, protected by 10 Chinese security vehicles, left a hotel in the northeastern city of Changchun yesterday where he was believed to have met Chinese President Hu Jintao, South Korean media said.

It stopped by an international food exhibition site and an agriculture university before returning to the hotel for a lunch break, YTN TV said.

The convoy left the hotel again nearly eight hours later and arrived at the city’s railway station where Kim’s special train was on standby, Yonhap news agency said. The reclusive Kim reportedly dislikes flying.

South Korean officials also said Kim was likely to return home yesterday after securing massive economic aid and diplomatic support from China for his impoverished country.

“President Hu, who had been on leave somewhere in northeastern China, went to Changchun to meet Chairman Kim,” an unidentified intelligence official was quoted as saying by the Chosun daily.

“Chairman Kim is likely to return home on a special train as early as yesterday,” the official said.

Hu’s meeting with Kim during the Chinese leader’s summer holiday echoed the informal summits of former US president George W. Bush, who invited his closest allies to his private ranch, the Chosun daily said.

“It looks like China wants to show off its strong alliance with the North toward the United States and South Korea,” the official said.

Kim’s China trip, his second this year, comes amid simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula following the North’s alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship in March, which killed 46 sailors.

The US and South Korea have been carrying out a series of military exercises, including a naval drill in the sensitive Yellow Sea, sparking angry reactions and counter-exercises from China.