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BEIJING -- Directly witnessing evidence that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is in China is proving as difficult as plucking stars from the sky.
The Beijing's foreign press has taken up positions in all the places Kim is likely to visit in order to capture proof of his presence on film, but their worries are as high as a mountain.
So far, the only people to see Kim with the naked eye are a small number of Chinese Communist Party and government high officals, including Communist Party International Liaison Department chief Wang Jiarui, who welcomed the North Korean leader when he arrived in Beijing on Monday. Kim had taken a special train to Beijing (via Shenyang) from the Chinese border town of Dandong.
Much of the staff at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing is apparently unaware that Kim is in Beijing; there are even rumors that rather than use the embassy's car, he has been provided a special car by the Chinese government.
Moreover, there are underground roads beneath the Zhongnanhai -- headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party and place of abode for the Chinese leaders Kim has come to visit -- so it would be fairly easy for the North Korean leader to move around in secret.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry is consistently declining comment on Kim's visit to Beijing. This was much the case last time Kim was in town; when Kim visited Beijing in May 2000 and January 2001, all the Chinese government would say following his return to North Korea was that he went home.
One source said that this visit is an unofficial one at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party, and that the authorities are threatening those who might wish to divulge Kim's itinerary in Beijing with severe punishment.
Since Sunday afternoon, traffic at a railway bridge near Dandong station has been closed to normal traffic, and if there were signs that Kim's presence would be exposed even the slightest, places and times were re-arranged as the occasion called.
The Chinese are known to have taken these stringent security measures at the request of the North Koreans.
One can see North Korea's request that Kim's activities in China be kept in the utmost secrecy as quite natural for that country, but it's forcing Beijing's diplomatic and press community to work remarkably hard to verify Kim's presence in the city.
The North's intense secrecy about this trip is known to be for the personal protection of Kim himself.
If one looks at the North's government-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reports on Kim, it customarily reports where he went and what he saw only after the fact, and it doesn't report specific times.
A Western source in Beijing said North Korean authorities are not confident about Kim's security in China.
Moreover, there are persuasive arguments that North Korea's leadership does not wish to reveal the contents of its summit with China -- including requests for economic assistance -- and that it believes secrecy is necessary for strategic reasons.
Chinese Communist Party Chairman Hu Jintao is expected to explain to Kim the American position on the North Korean nuclear issue as U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney explained it to Hu during his visit to China last Tuesday and Wednesday. He will also directly hear Kim's plans for a solution to the nuclear problem.
In connection with this, there are rumors that North Korea will soon make a major breakthrough announcement on the nuclear issue, and sources said it is likely that Kim explained this to Hu during their meeting.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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