A former senior North Korean official who defected to the South said, "If he were to give the highest level of protocol to a foreign leader, Kim Jong-il would go to the airport to welcome him, visit him at Baekhwawon State Guesthouse on the day of his arrival, and attend a dinner in his honor at the Mokrangwan restaurant in the evening."

President Roh Moo-hyun toasts with President of the Supreme People's Assembly Kim Yong-nam at a dinner in Pyongyang on Wednesday. /Yonhap

When former Chinese president Jiang Zemin was in Pyongyang for a three-day visit in September 2001, Kim did just that. Russian President Vladimir Putin was accorded the same level of protocol during his two-day stay in Pyongyang in July 2000.

Chinese President Hu Jintao received especially cordial treatment during a three-day stay in Pyongyang in October 2005. In addition to visiting the state guesthouse on the day of his arrival, Kim delivered a speech at a dinner in Hu's honor at the Mokrangwan restaurant. When South Korea’s former president Kim Dae-jung visited, Kim Jong-il also treated him more cordially, greeting him at the airport and giving him a lift in his own sedan together to the Baekhwawon State Guesthouse.

Leaders of developing countries are normally welcomed at the airport by Kim Yong-nam, the president of the Supreme People's Assembly, and hold formal sessions with SPA President Kim at Mansudae Assembly Hall.

Kim Jong-il normally visits such leaders at the Baekhwawon State Guesthouse the following day and does not usually attend the gala dinner. On the two occasions when Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri visited North Korea, she was met at the airport by Kim Yong-nam and met with Kim Jong-il the following day. When Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong visited North Korea in February 2000. Kim did not visit him at the state guesthouse until two days after his arrival.

Despite hostile relations between Washington and Pyongyang, Kim Jong-il accorded warm hospitality to former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright in October 2000. While he did not meet her at the airport, he paid her a surprise visit at the state guesthouse on the day of her arrival. In a gesture of hospitality, Kim accompanied Albright to the mass gymnastics performance. he also attended the dinner in her honor at the Mokrangwan restaurant.

Roh is getting a lower-level treatment all round, except that Kim welcomed him at the plaza of the April 25 House of Culture on Tuesday.

(englishnews@chosun.com )